The Razgriz Legacies
by wisegirl502
Summary: The kids of the Razgriz are back and with their own story, starting in Belka when they're allowed to do an exchange program. Along the way, they experience heartbreak & deception, but nothing prepares them for the next year when they lose one of their own. Forced to leave the academy to save their lives & their parents, they must choose between what's easy and what's right.
1. Commencement

**GUYS I'M BACK AND I HAVE A TOTALLY NEW STORY. I think you figured that out considering the ones that follow me may have possibly received an update saying I just published a new story… Anyways, I just saw **_**The Monuments Men**_** and it gave me an idea on what I should do for the kids of the Razgriz :) I'm excited! So for those of you who have just discovered this story, I SUGGEST YOU READ THE TWO PREQUEL STORIES TO THIS ONE OR YOU'LL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON BECAUSE I DEVIATED FROM THE GAME A BIT… okay a lot. I added in a ton of my own stuff and made Blaze a female because I'm the author and I can. Okay, another thing for any nuggets to my stories: 1) if you like the story, please, please, please review! They keep me writing! 2) If you hate the story, leave. Just leave the story and go find one you'll enjoy. No flames. Seriously, they're pointless and I ignore them. 3) however, if you like the story but have some **_**constructive **_**criticism, not **_**destructive**_**, please tell me! I want to make my readers happy :) Okay, now onwards with the story! Fair warning, the first few chapters are just teenager drama stuff that needs to happen for future chapters to happen. All right, **_**now**_** onwards!**

**Chapter Quote:  
>"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."<br>****~Ralph Waldo Emerson**

* * *

><p>Chapter 1: Commencement<p>

**Shiloh**

You would think being the youngest in my entire family, blood-related or not, that I'd be the most submissive and passive.

That did not happen.

Instead, it seems that I took on my mother's personality and have chosen to do my own thing and to ignore people who try to boss me around because I'm so young for a sophomore in the Air Force Academy. Even my brothers and sister listen to me. Hell, the only person I have issues getting to listen to me is Percy, but he _is_ the oldest out of our crazy family, so he likes to think he has superiority over all of us. Truth is none of us are really that acquiescent. In a way, we're all alphas in our own right. Isabelle is probably the quietest, but she is considered a super genius. In fact, she and I both are. We have IQs way over normal. It helped us skip a grade so we graduated high school with Lux, Henry, and Charlotte.

Will and Jem are by far the most devious of the entire group, also considered the strategists. Percy earns second place in that category, helping my brothers in a lot of their plans. Do not even get me started on how many times they've had to be reprimanded by our professors.

Percy is the most bilingual. He can speak Osean (I'd be worried if he didn't), Yuktobanian, and Belkan. My brothers, Lux, and I can all speak Belkan fluently; Henry, Alec, Charlotte, and Tessa all speak some Belkan since Pops and Pixy taught them some (Pixy is Tessa's godfather, Pops is Alec's).

Lux is the advice giver. If you have a problem, you go to her. Boys, stress, family, friends, or whatever the subject or problem is, she can help you.

Isabelle is the code cracker. If you have school work that you can't answer, you go to her. I'm good at it too, but she's phenomenal.

Alec and Tessa are the charm speakers. They can talk their way in and out of everything. None of us have figured out how they do it. They won't tell us either.

Henry and Charlotte are collectors. They keep records on everything. It doesn't matter if the records are for research purposes or studying battle strategies or blackmailing people, they keep everything meticulously filed so that you just search for what you needed and you have it within seconds. Will and Jem typically head to them when they need to figure out the layout of a building they are going to pull a prank in.

Then there is me. I'm sort of a jack-of-all-trades. I haven't found that one thing I'm really good at or that one thing that makes me stand out from the rest of my family. In other words, no matter how focused I act, in actuality, I am totally lost. Maybe I'm the best actor in my family. I can hide things that are bothering me really well. Most people don't know something's bothering me until I voice that it is.

Anyways, enough with the introductions; let's get into the story.

My day started out normally enough. Will and Jem barked at me and Lux to wake up and get a move on. And it was still Christmas break. We were still off. So naturally, Lux and I went back to bed. Next, Will and Jem snuck into our rooms and proceeded to jump on our beds until we both unceremoniously kicked them off. Percy, Alec, and Henry all came in to help my brothers get me and Lux up. Charlotte, Tessa, and Isabelle were yawning behind them, giving the boys death glares, which told me the boys had done the same to them. Percy lifted me up by my arms, Alec my legs. Will and Jem did the same to Lux. Henry acted as a sports announcer and kept shouting out what was happening in "The Battle of the Wake Up." Lux and I had inherited our mother's ability to kick violently and after death rolling our captors a few times, we managed to get our legs free. Once our legs were free, the guys holding our arms quickly let go. The bright side to that: we were free. The dark side: we plopped to the ground hard. I scrambled back into my bed and dove under the covers, staring triumphantly up at Percy and Alec who were laughing at me.

"You know Perce, her bed looks really comfortable," Alec mused.

"You know what? You're right. How about we take a seat?" Percy replied mischievously. Before I could move, the two of them sat down on top of me and leaned against the wall casually, obviously not going anywhere anytime soon. I groaned as Jem and Tessa joined them. Will, Henry, Charlotte, and Isabelle sat on Lux.

"So what's the plan for today guys?" Will queried, pinning Lux's arms down when she tried to punch him in a really bad place so he'd get off of her.

"I was thinking of staying here all day; this bed is really comfy," Percy said, grinning down at me. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Let's go to the lake and go swimming," Jem suggested.

"It's the middle of January. No," Isabelle said. Jem snickered.

"How about we do a marathon?" Alex offered.

"Show or running?" Tessa asked.

"Show," Henry said.

"I'm game. _Supernatural_?" Charlotte grinned.

"Where are we going to watch it?" I managed to grunt. All the weight on top of me was beginning to make it hard to breathe. Jem must've noted this because he ordered, "Get off of them."

No one argued against him; a second later, the weight off of me was lifted. I breathed in relief. Then Alec flipped over onto the bed next to me. Percy lay on the other side of me, leaving me entrapped in my bed once more.

"Honestly you two," I said with a smirk.

"Honestly sweetheart," Percy said. He had all these nicknames for me, 'Sweetheart,' 'Sweetie,' 'Honey,' 'Lovely,' yet he wasn't even my boyfriend. He just always called me those. I don't know why.

"I hate you both so much."

"Love you too," Alec said. Alec was my best friend in the entire group. He was like my adopted brother. I mean, he's my cousin and all, but it felt like he was my brother. I don't know why he and I got along so well, but we went to each other for everything. We were each other's biggest confidantes. He was the only one who knew I had the biggest crush on Percy; not even my sister knew, but that was because she'd find a way to hook us up. Add that to her list of what she's freaking amazing at.

"I'm going to go get Sophie. Anyone else want to go get their boyfriend or girlfriend?" Will asked, halfway out the door. Sophie Coulson was in my year at the academy. I'd met her a few times, and she started dating Will the first year she got here. Sophie was smart. Rather quiet around big groups, but talkative if she knew you. Will was whipped by her. She had blonde hair and brown eyes. She looked like a supermodel and always looked fantastic no matter what she looked like, making me almost feel self-conscious about the way I look sometimes.

"I've got mine," Jem remarked, taking Tessa's hand in his. They smiled at each other.

"I've got mine too," Henry added, kissing Charlotte on the cheek.

"Scott's out of town," Lux said. Scott Jameson was her boyfriend of one year. They'd met in one of their classes. I forget which. He was in the same year as Percy, Will, Jem, Alec, and Tessa. Scott was also a senior this year.

"Simon went to visit his family," Isabelle mumbled. She'd been dating him for one and half years, pretty much since the first week we came to the academy. Simon Masters was tall, black-haired, and blue-eyed. He worked a lot in the science department. He was already helping design new missiles and bombs. The guy was smart. I liked him a lot for her. They were perfectly suited for each other. Like Scott, he was a senior this year.

"Lydia's on vacation with her family," Alec joined in. "So it's just Sophie who's coming." Lydia was another super genius in our group with an IQ close to mine and Isabelle's. We'd met her in a 'gifted' class. The three of us hit it off instantly. Lydia had fiery red hair that seemed to match her fiery, confidant attitude. Lux had hooked her and Alec up because they were a) adorable together, and b) perfect together. She was a freshman this year but was older than me because she hadn't skipped a grade when she was younger. She and Alec had been dating for about four months now.

"I'll go get her." Will left and I wriggled out of my bed. I went over to the bathroom where I brushed my teeth and put on some makeup. Lux followed suit. I didn't bother changing pajamas. I didn't feel like it. Besides, these people, save for Sophie, were family. They'd seen me in my pajamas before. I crawled back into bed between Percy and Alec. Jem and Henry had mysteriously disappeared. I didn't question it. A few minutes later, the two returned, carrying someone's mattress. I hoped it was one of theirs and that they didn't dump a poor first year out of it (wouldn't be the first time). They wedged it between my bed and Lux's. They jumped onto it and threw out their arms for their girlfriends to come sit with them. Will came back a few minutes later with Sophie. She smiled and said hello to us. Percy and Alec kept their spot in my bed. Isabelle sat with my sister on her bed. Will put in the first disc of season one and we settled in for our marathon.

Midway through the show, I fell asleep on Percy's shoulder. I woke up briefly when Percy shifted a little bit. I found Alec asleep on my shoulder at that moment. Percy told me to go back to sleep and I did. I woke up again what turned out to be five hours later: lunch time. Of course, the only reason I woke up was because I heard one of our professors telling us to get up and go to the Superintendent's office. At that notification, we rushed to get up. I threw on my uniform and brushed my hair out and waited for Lux to be finished. Thankfully she didn't take long. We ran to the Superintendent's office and waited impatiently to be called in. My brothers, Percy, Sophie, Alec, Henry, Tessa, Charlotte, and Isabelle arrived a few seconds later.

"You can go in now," the secretary informed. We thank her before entering the office. Everything about the office was spic and span. Not a thing was out of place or crooked. I'd be surprised if there was a speck of dust on anything.

"Good afternoon, cadets," Superintendent Johnson greeted.

"Good afternoon, sir!" we responded simultaneously, saluting him.

"At ease," he said. We obeyed. "I've called you here on an important matter. As you may have heard, every year, we send our top twenty students over to the Belkan Air Force Academy and they send the same amount here. It gives students the opportunity to learn a different style of learning for whatever their major is. You would stay there for one month, learning specifically Belkan flying techniques. In the case of Mr. Simon Masters and Ms. Lydia McCall, who are also being invited, he will be studying chemical weaponry and creation and she will be studying aeronautics and aerodynamics. The program would start the day after break ends. You have a week to tell me your answer. Do you have any questions?"

"No sir!" We answered.

"Very well, you may go back to watching your marathon. In the case for some of you, back to sleeping. Yes, my commanders were laughing at the arrangement you all had in the lady Davenports' room. Dismissed," Superintendent Johnson said. We saluted him once more and left, barely holding in our excitement.

"WE'RE GOING TO BELKA!" Will screeched at the top of his lungs, jumping on Lux's bed. She shoved him off onto the mattress between our beds and got on her own so she could jump up and down.

"Guys, we have to call our parents!" Henry said.

"Our room, we call first!" Lux declared, giving the evil eye to anyone who tried to oppose her. No one did. They probably wanted to live. Lux, Will, Jem, and I went to the phone and putting it on speaker, called our parents. My mom picked up on first ring.

"Hello?" she queried.

"Hello mom!" We chirped simultaneously.

"What did Will and Jem do now?" she groaned. I loved how my mom automatically assumed that if we called from a school phone that my brothers had done something wrong. I heard our friends snickering behind us.

"I'm offended!" Jem protested in mock horror.

"Why would we ever be in trouble, mother?" Will joined.

"Shut up you two," my mom laughed. "What's up?"

"So all four of us just got chosen-" Will began.

"- To go to the Belkan Air Force Academy-" Jem added

"- For a month when break ends," Lux said.

"We need your permission to go," I finished.

"I don't see why you couldn't. Who else is going?" Mom said.

"Well Alec, Henry, Isabelle, Percy, Charlotte, and Tessa have been invited. Scott, Lydia, and Sophie have been asked as well. There are more people that have been invited but we don't know who," Lux explained.

"You have our permission. Just be careful and watch out for each other, okay? Girls, don't let the guys there intimidate you. They're still very patriarchal there. Give them hell okay?" she said drolly.

"You got it mom," I replied. "Thank you!"

We all said bye and that we love her before hanging. The Banks, Percy, and Grimms followed in suit. All the parents gave them permission.

We could barely contain our excitement.

We were going to Belka.

* * *

><p><strong>So like I said, these are sort of intro chapters and getting everything into place for the grand scheme of things. I hope you guys are ready! If I can wing this well enough, it should turn out to be epic (hopefully)! Review please :)<strong>


	2. Conversion

**Okay, someone said that I should probably create a list of who's who because there are a lot of new characters so here you go! :)**

**Shiloh Annalise Davenport  
><strong>**Parents: Blaze and Chopper  
><strong>**Age: 18  
><strong>**Birthday: February 1, 2016  
><strong>**Hair: Blonde  
><strong>**Eyes: Blue  
><strong>**Height: 5'8  
><strong>**Blood Type: B**

**Lux Gabrielle Davenport  
><strong>**Parents: Blaze and Chopper  
><strong>**Age: 19  
><strong>**Birthday: July 4, 2015  
><strong>**Hair: Blonde  
><strong>**Eyes: Blue  
><strong>**Height: 5'7  
><strong>**Blood Type: B**

**William Dean Davenport and James Samuel Davenport  
><strong>**Parents: Blaze and Chopper  
><strong>**Age: 20  
><strong>**Birthday: October 30, 2014  
><strong>**Hair: Blonde  
><strong>**Eyes: Blue  
><strong>**Height: 6'2  
><strong>**Blood Type: O**

**Percy Jack Bartlett  
><strong>**Parents: Bartlett and Major  
><strong>**Age: 20  
><strong>**Birthday: April 15, 2014  
><strong>**Hair: Black  
><strong>**Eyes: Blue  
><strong>**Height: 6'2  
><strong>**Blood Type: AB**

**Tessa Sophia Grimm  
><strong>**Parents: Grimm and Cassie  
><strong>**Age: 20  
><strong>**Birthday: July 11, 2014  
><strong>**Hair: Blonde  
><strong>**Eyes: Blue  
><strong>**Height: 5'6  
><strong>**Blood Type: A**

**Charlotte Clarisse Grimm  
><strong>**Parents: Cassie and Grimm  
><strong>**Age: 19  
><strong>**Birthday: December 7, 2015  
><strong>**Hair: Blonde  
><strong>**Eyes: Blue  
><strong>**Height: 5'8  
><strong>**Blood Type: AB**

**Alec Lewis Banks  
><strong>**Parents: Genette and Nagase  
><strong>**Age: 20  
><strong>**Birthday: July 15, 2014  
><strong>**Hair: Black  
><strong>**Eyes: Brown  
><strong>**Height: 6'0  
><strong>**Blood Type: O**

**Henry Gabriel Banks  
><strong>**Parents: Genette and Nagase  
><strong>**Age: 19  
><strong>**Birthday: March 20, 2015  
><strong>**Hair: Brown  
><strong>**Eyes: Brown  
><strong>**Height: 5'11  
><strong>**Blood Type: B**

**Isabelle Maria Banks  
><strong>**Parents: Genette and Nagase  
><strong>**Age: 18  
><strong>**Birthday: January 2, 2016  
><strong>**Hair: Black  
><strong>**Eyes: Brown  
><strong>**Height: 5'7  
><strong>**Blood Type: A**

**Hope that helped (long I know)! Okay, let's not keep you any longer :)**

**Chapter Quote:  
><strong>"**To me, being the best means proving it in different countries and championships."  
><strong>**~Cristiano Ronaldo**

* * *

><p>Chapter 2: Conversion<p>

**Alec**

I sat in the middle seat between Lydia and Shiloh on the flight to Belka. Shiloh took the aisle seat so she could talk to Percy. No matter what she said, I knew that was the reason. I wanted her to tell Lux about her crush on Percy so Lux could hook the two of them up because I'd never told Shi this but Percy had a massive crush on her too; he just wouldn't admit it because of Will and Jem. The twins were way over protective of Shiloh, Lux was too. None of us knew why, but we all figured it was because she was the youngest.

Lydia stayed up the entire flight working on cryptograms. I never was all that great at them, but she excelled in them. My girlfriend happens to be a genius in code-cracking. I'm completely okay with this. I like smart girls.

Lux, Scott and a guy named Liam sat behind me. Sophie and Will were sitting next to a man that talked a lot in his sleep. Jem and Tessa sat across the aisle from them next to a woman who, at one point, dropped her dentures into Jem's drink. Henry and Charlotte were playing some game together that Charlotte kept winning at and making Henry extremely frustrated. Isabelle and Simon were studying… something. Knowing them, they were trying to figure out the end of pi or something crazy like that.

When we arrived to Belka, we were greeted by five professors. We saluted them. As they led us to the cars that would take us to base, the professors conversed with us. Their names were Adler, Jung (pronounced 'young'), Klein, Roth, and Wirth.

"So how old are all of you?"

Percy rattled off everyone's ages. Adler turned his head to look at Shiloh, Lydia, and Isabelle. "You must be freshman. Impressive that you're here so young."

"Actually, Isabelle and I are sophomores. We skipped a grade when we were younger, sir," Shiloh explained.

"Interesting." The instructor turned away and began conversing with Percy, Will, and Jem. Interestingly enough, all the instructors seemed to ignore the girls. I could tell it ticked them off. Here were these brilliant minds and they were being completely ignored. This wouldn't go over well with them, and since I knew all of them like the back of my hand, even Sophie, I knew they were going to try and. prove themselves. The girls were going to make sure they made a statement to the Belkan instructors. The younger generation of Belkans was more accepting of girls in the military, but the older generation, such as the professors walking with us, was _extremely_ old-fashioned, and believed the military should be for men only because they didn't think women were "capable" of fighting well. They obviously hadn't met the women in our family. My mom, aunts, and godmother would put the guys in their place. Hell, I'd like to see an air battle between them.

"What are you students planning on becoming?" Wirth queried.

"Kody and I are in training to be RIOs," Sophie replied.

"Lydia and I are studying aeronautical engineering," Simon informed.

"We're training to be Combat Rescue Officers," Ethan and Aiden said simultaneously. They were twins. They did everything together.

"Caleb and I are going to become surgeons," Nick said. He and Caleb were juniors. Nick was pretty cool; he certainly had a mouth on him. Caleb was very laid-back and didn't like to socialize much with people.

"Shiloh, Lux, Charlotte, Tessa, and I are training to be pilots," Isabelle piped up. My sister surprised me. Typically when she wanted to make a statement, she did it through actions rather than words.

"Will, Jem, Percy, Alec, Henry, Liam, and I are training to be pilots too," Scott said with a grin. "We're all awesome at it."

"Who's the best?" Klein questioned with a small smirk.

"Depends on what ability we're talking about. Percy, Will, and Jem are the best at strategizing. Henry, Scott, and I are the best at evasive maneuvers," I answered.

"What are the girls good at?"

Percy laughed. "Where do I start? They're all fantastic, but I guess Charlotte and Tessa's strong points are tailing enemies. Once they lock onto you, you stand no chance. Lux and Isabelle are best at predicting what the enemy is going to do next. It's not normal how good they are at it actually. And Shiloh… she adapts to the situation flawlessly. No matter what happens, she's ready for it. That's why she could probably kick all of our butts."

Shiloh bit back a grin at the compliment. I winked at her; she made a face at me.

"Just a reminder for all of you, particularly the pilots, you're being put in the advance classes. These are toughest of the toughest classes. You may have been the top of your class back at OAFA, but don't expect to be so here. Now, take your seats in the car. We'll be at your accommodations in five minutes.

I sat next to the window; Lydia sat next to me and Shiloh sat in front of me. I leaned forward and whispered to her, "You're going to prove them wrong aren't you?"

"Damn straight I am."

* * *

><p><strong>Next week…<strong>

I knew there was some misogyny in the Belkan Air Force by the older generation but the amount they showed was ridiculous and at times, so blatant that even the Belkan students gave each other "What the heck" looks. It was seriously ticking off Shiloh, Lux, Isabelle, Tessa, Charlotte, Lydia, Sophie, and Kody. These were the brightest girls in our school and could handle pretty much anything thrown at them; but after just a week, Kody had had a breakdown in her room, Lux got shouted at by a professor, Lydia and Sophie had had arguments with their professors, Charlotte and Tessa had been reprimanded for being _too thorough_ in a paper (honestly, who's ever heard of such a thing?), and Isabelle and Shiloh had been asked to stay after class for talking in class when they hadn't even said a word; it'd been two guys behind them with really squeaky voices and no matter how much the girls denied it, the instructor would not believe them.

At the moment, Lydia was ranting to me about the misogynistic attitudes of the professors while "Shut Up" by Simple Plan rocked on when Lux and Shiloh poked their heads into my dorm room.

"Hey you two, what do you say we get away from the assbutts and go into town? It's Sunday and I want to get off base," Lux said.

"Please and thank you," Lydia responded, snatching up her purse.

I stood up and followed. "Are the others coming?"

"Yeah, they're waiting for us outside," Shiloh said. Sure enough, when the four of us exited the building, our group was waiting.

"Where's Scott?" I asked.

"He's studying. He wants to get ahead on an assignment or something," Lux explained. Something told me she didn't really believe that, but I wasn't going to say anything. Our group grabbed a few taxis that proceeded to drive us directly into the heart of town. The town itself was surprisingly small for being so close to an academy. There were four main roads in the entire area. Yeah, it's small. We all split up once there. Shiloh went off somewhere unknown to all of us. The girl literally just disappeared. Percy went off with Will and Jem to go find a joke shop. Sophie, Charlotte, Tessa, Lux, and Lydia went to go shopping. This left me and Henry to do what we wanted. Since we were hungry (we're always hungry), we went to a grab lunch.

* * *

><p><strong>Shiloh<strong>

I entered a quaint little coffee shop situated on a side road connecting two of the main streets together. The place was crowded but not unbearably so. I got in line to order my drink and thanked my mother silently for teaching me how to read and speak Belkan because everything on the menu was in Belkan. I decided to go with an orange/strawberry smoothie because those things are my freaking downfall next to Cake Batter Ice Cream from Ben & Jerry's and bacon-wrapped dates (and I mean the fruit, not guys. That would just be weird…).

When I received my drink, I turned around to head out. I nearly spilled my drink all over an extremely handsome air force man. He put steadying hands on my shoulders and said, "_Ich habe Sie_."

_I got you _is what he said. I smiled sheepishly and replied, "_Danke_."

"You're not from around here are you?" he laughed, suddenly speaking perfect English. He had a slight lilt when he spoke English, but only because English was my first language did I recognize it as coming from a native-Belkan speaker.

"How'd you know?" I asked.

"You're too nice. Plus I've never seen you around here before and I come here every day."

"Got it. I didn't mean to crash into you."

"I'm not complaining. I get to talk to a pretty girl. What's your name?"

"Shiloh Davenport. And you?"

"Axel Bernitz. Would you like to have lunch with a poor man all by his lonesome? It'll be on me." Axel winked at me.

I knew I shouldn't have lunch with him. It was only a matter of time before he figured it out. But he seemed so nice! He didn't seem at all like the stories I'd heard about his father. Giving Axel the benefit of the doubt, I agreed to have lunch with the son of Grabacr One.

* * *

><p><strong>What do you think of Shiloh's choice? What do you think is going on with Lux's boyfriend? What do you think the girls are going to do to prove themselves to their instructors? You'll have to keep reading to find out. Review! :)<strong>


	3. Contempt

**Let's pick up where we left off, shall we?**

**Chapter Quote:  
><strong>"**The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn't one."  
><strong>_**~The Blind Assassin**_

* * *

><p>Chapter 3: Contempt<p>

**Shiloh**

Lunch with Axel ended up being surprisingly enjoyable. The two of us talked for about three hours about planes, war, favorite school subjects, hobbies, and the likes. I'd been able to avoid revealing that my parents were the reason his father was imprisoned, much to my relief.

There was a lapse in our conversation as we finished a subject and thought of a new one. I took a bite of a pastry Axel had insisted I try when he said, "I'm surprised."

"By what?" I asked, covering my mouth.

"You're much more laid-back than I thought you'd be."

His statement struck me as odd. I gave him a wary expression and said, "What do you mean?"

"I'm not meaning to sound like a creep!" he exclaimed, holding up his hands. "Which I probably do… damn it. Uh, what I mean is I know you're the daughter of Blaze and Chopper, Razgriz One and Three respectively. I didn't know what you looked like but I knew your name and when I met you a few hours ago, it wasn't hard to figure out that it was _you_. You look just like your mom. Maybe it's just a Belkan thing, but if a kid from here had parents like yours, they'd be bragging about it like crazy. It'd be the first thing out of their mouth. With you, it's like you don't like talking about it."

"I don't like talking about it," I retorted. "Especially to people who are the children of the people my parents put in jail."

Axel seemed taken aback by my outburst and sudden defensiveness. It was the truth though… and there was more… I loved my parents and I was unbelievably proud of what they had accomplished and that I was their daughter, but whenever people knew that, they would always refer to me as 'Blaze's kid' or 'Chopper's kid,' not by my actual name, and it irked me. Blaze and Chopper's _kid_ has a name, and her name is _Shiloh_.

"It's not your fault your parents put my dad in jail, nor do I hate you or them for it. In fact, I want to _thank _them for it," Axel declared quietly, heatedly.

I met his gaze. "What?"

"I want to thank them," he repeated before glancing down at his drink. "I was two years old when my dad left for that war, and I don't remember much, but I remember my mom living in fear of him. I never knew why she'd always been so afraid of my father until I asked her where I'd gotten this scar on my head from." He pointed to a long, thin, jagged line above his eyebrow. "My father was abusive. He hit my mom and he hit me. I had been crying because he'd been scaring me, and he hit me to shut me up. His ring hit above my eyebrow, hence this scar. I had to get it stitched. After that, he went to war and I never saw him again, thank god. My mom filed for divorce once she found out he was going to prison. It took five years for it to be official because he refused to sign the papers. But during that time, she'd found a really nice man: Frederick Johansson. They married once the divorce with my father was final, and I've considered Frederick my dad ever since. I feel like I'm dumping all this on you but I want you to know why I don't hate your parents, why I don't hate you or your siblings, why I don't hate your family. I'm not a threat to you. In fact, I'd like to consider myself an ally. If you ever need anything, let me know."

I was too shocked to say anything at first. Axel had practically spilled his whole life story to me just now. I mean, he hasn't been the only one to do this, but this was Ashley Bernitz's son. He wasn't supposed to be this… pleasant. "I'll let my parents know, and I'm sorry about your father. No child deserves to be treated that way."

"Thank you for telling your parents and thank you for not running away from me when I told you all this. I could tell I was making you uncomfortable." Axel gave a small chuckle

"I forgot that you Belkans are really good at reading people," I grumbled, smiling. At that moment, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and answered it: "Hello?"

"Hey Shi, it's Percy. Where are you?"

"I'm at this place called Fisher's and Donaldson's. Why?"

"Okay, see you in a minute." Percy hung up, and I shook my head. So blunt, just like his father.

"Who was that?" Axel questioned, stuffing a small pastry into his mouth.

"That was my friend Percy. He's Jack Bartlett's son."

"So is it safe for me to assume that he's a guy who likes to disregard rules and do his own thing?"

"It is safe to say that," I laughed.

"Who's this?" A voice queried behind me. Turning around, none other than Percy Bartlett was standing there. Alec was there with him. Both guys were eyeing Axel suspiciously.

"Oh hey Percy, hey Alec. This is Axel. Axel, this Percy and Alec," I introduced, careful to avoid last names. The boys were already suspicious of my new friend. I didn't want them decking the guy unconscious if they found out who he was.

"Pleasure to meet you. Shiloh has told me a lot about you two," Axel greeted amiably, offering his hand for them to shake.

"Hopefully the good things," Alec joked, taking up the handshake. Percy was more hesitant but followed in suit. "Do you two know each other or…?"

"I accidentally almost spilled my drink on him when I turned around and he stopped me from doing so. We started chatting and since neither of us had anywhere to be or anyone to meet, we decided to have lunch together. What about y'all?"

"Your brothers and I found a joke shop and bought a few things. I don't know what Alec did," Percy said.

"Henry and I went to some restaurant that had this challenge where if you ate three massive hamburgers, you'd get your picture on the wall and have free food whenever you ate there," Alec explained. "I feel like I'm about to throw up."

"Did you actually do it?!" I exclaimed in awe.

"Barely. I practically waddled over here."

"Was it Rosie's Diner?" Axel inquired, grinning.

"You know the place?" Alec responded.

"Oh yeah. I tried the same challenge. Unlike you, I failed."

"My brother failed miserably. Has one and a half burgers left. Listen, Percy and I came to see if you wanted to go to the movies with us and the others? We're going to see that new horror movie. You're welcome to come Axel if you don't have anything else planned for the day."

"I have to get back to my base, but thank you for the offer. Shiloh, it was great to meet you. We'll have to do this again sometime. My comrades and I go up there once in a while to help train the students, hold hops and whatnot. Maybe I'll see you around," Axel said.

"I hope so," I said, smiling. "I'll see you around, Axel."

My new friend left the scene. Just as he was leaving the place, a guy walked in and said, "There you are Bernitz! The guys and I have been looking all over for you."

Percy's face turned murderous. If I hadn't been standing there and hadn't been able to grab onto him, he would've taken on Axel in front of everyone.

"Percy!" I hissed quietly.

He whirled on me. "Are you nuts?"

"He is _not_ his father," I warned.

"He's still a Bernitz."

"Until proven otherwise, he's a good guy. Leave him alone. Let's get going to that movie." I dragged Percy out of the coffee shop. I wasn't worried about Alec starting anything. He wouldn't start a fight unless he'd seen something actually happen.

Lux, Lydia, and Henry were waiting outside for us. My sister seemed to pick up on Percy's foul mood, but one look from me kept her silent. I appreciated how well my sister and I could communicate silently. Sometimes.

"Let's get going!" I urged, wanting to distract my friends and family from Percy's obvious pissed off expression that seemed to be permanently etched onto his face at the moment. No one needed encouraging. The group started walking. Percy kept me next to him in the back.

He leaned down next to my ear and whispered, "I hope you know what you're doing."

I was getting pissed off by him now. I could be friends with who I chose. If Axel turned out to be an assbutt like his father, I'd admit to my mistake. But he hadn't given me reason to hate him. "What are you so mad about?" I demanded quietly so the others wouldn't get suspicious and eavesdrop on our conversation although I'm pretty sure my sister was trying to.

"I don't want to see you get hurt!"

"I can take care of myself!" With that, I jerked my hand out of his and caught up with Lux. She gave me an inquisitive glance but said nothing, although that glance also hinted to me we'd be talking later and that there was no way out of it for me.

* * *

><p><strong>Later that evening…<strong>

I'd been hanging out with Isabelle since we'd all gotten back from that horror movie. I don't get scared easily, but holy crap that movie was terrifying! I'm pretty sure I watched half the thing through my fingers. At least I didn't accidentally throw my popcorn bucket up like Henry.

It was eight at night, and I decided I should probably head back to my imminent interrogation by Lux. I said bye to Isabelle and left. I passed Scott in the hallway. He gave me a quick smile, almost a guilty one, and kept walking. I turned around briefly to watch him leave, wondering what the hell his problem was.

My question was answered when I walked into my room.

The windows were open.

There was a trash can in the middle of the room with a small fire in it.

And Lux sat next to it, throwing in what appeared to be pictures.

"So who do I need to kill?" I inquired, quickly shutting the door before we were seriously reprimanded for having an illegal fire in the dorm.

"Scott, that lying, cheating bastard," Lux growled.

"I'll get on that. But first, while I love your technique of getting rid of the memories, I really don't want to be kicked out of the academy because of this fire. I'll get you a shredder and let you shred the pictures as many times as you want, okay?"

Lux nodded, grabbing the trash can and running it under the sink we had in our room. She made sure the flames were extinguished and all the ashes had been washed down the sink to hide any evidence of the fire.

"He's been cheating on me for the past few months," Lux mumbled, sitting on her bed and pulling a pillow up to her chest.

"How'd you find out?" I asked, sitting next to her.

"I went to his room when we got back. Idiot misjudged how long I was going to be gone and was, well, you can figure it out. I kicked the girl out and demanded answers from him. He knew unless he told me the truth, I was going to make sure he never had children again, so he blurted out everything… How could I be so _stupid_?!" My sister groaned.

"You're not stupid, Lux," I said. "He's the stupid one, and it's his loss, not yours."

"I thought he was cheating on me before I actually found out though! Why didn't I break up with him sooner?!"

"Because you're like dad and you tend to trust people more than you should."

Lux snorted. "And you don't? Percy told me about who you were talking to earlier and why he was so pissed."

"He's being a worry wart," I said, before going into the actual details of the conversation I had with Axel. Lux seemed pretty shocked by the whole thing.

"That's horrible!" She gasped.

"I know. I don't think he means me or any of us harm. But let's not focus on him. We need to focus on how we're going to get back at Scott."

"Well I think this calls for an entire group project," my sister said deviously.

"It's time to unleash the twins."

"I shall go unleash the twins." Laughing, I pulled out my phone to text my brothers.

* * *

><p><strong>So what do you think of Axel's story? Do you trust him or no? Is Percy justified in his beliefs? Is Shiloh off her rocker? Let me know! Review! :)<strong>


	4. Commotion

**Sorry it's taken so long for me to update! I got inspired to write a new chapter after creating the video trailer for this story (which if you're interested in watching, say so in the review and I'll give you the link!). Enjoy the chapter :)**

**Chapter Quote:  
><strong>"**In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you."  
><strong>**~Deepak Chopra**

* * *

><p>Chapter 4: Commotion<p>

**Lux**

If I hadn't been so pissed at Scott, I might've actually felt bad for the things my brothers did to him. I didn't want to question how they didn't caught doing these things even though Scott swore up and down to the commanders that it was them. But my brothers are extremely good liars. The only people who don't fall for it is anyone in our family. I don't know how Will and Jem do it, but since they were helping me exact my revenge on Scott, I didn't question it. Percy was irate over the whole ordeal but he'd been rather temperamental ever since the episode with Shiloh having lunch with Axel Bernitz. I don't know why my sister did it, but she was typically good at judging people. I trusted her on this. To be honest, I think Percy had a soft spot for my sister, if not a crush. I was pretty sure Shi had one on him, but she hadn't told me. Probably worried I'd try to hook them up. In my defense, I'd only do so if I knew he liked her back.

But back to my brothers and Scott. The pranks went on for a week. The first being they put a dye in Scott's shampoo which caused his hair to turn into this obnoxious Osean blue color. Then when my ex went to complain, they put itching powder in his sheets. He was scratching all the next day. Next Will and Jem baked chocolate chip cookies with a lot of chili powder in the dough; arranged neatly on a plate with a note that said "Dear Scott, I've had the biggest crush on you and I've heard that you've been having a rough time lately so have some chocolate chip cookies :) Sincerely, your secret admirer." With Scott's room being right next door to my brother's they could hear him yell in pain from the spiciness and the water in the sink running. Will and Jem apparently literally rolled on the floor in laughter with that one. However, the base commanders started having men patrol the hallways, particularly ours, to make sure no one pranked Scott anymore. This was much to the disappointment of my brothers.

Currently, Shiloh, Isabelle, Charlotte, Tessa, and I were pretending we were the Spice girls and singing "Wannabe", each pretending be one of the singers. I was Scary Spice; I've always been her, maybe because I have a temper. Shiloh's always been Baby Spice since she's the baby of our entire family. Isabelle was Sporty Spice since she was the only one out of all us girls to do an actual sport (cross-country in case you're wondering). Tessa was Posh Spice. I mean, the other girls and I cared about looks, but Tessa had the best wardrobe of any of us. She always looked perfect, whether she was sick, pissed off, or any other time you can think of. Then finally, Charlotte was Ginger Spice. We forced this on her one year after she dyed her hair red because she'd just seen the Little Mermaid and wanted to have the same hair color. She regretted it instantly but we've never let her live it down since.

"You should start your own group," a voice laughed from the doorway. We shut up instantly, facing the intruder. It was just Percy, but he was grinning. "Listen, the boys and I are going clubbing tonight. Y'all want to come with us?"

"You know what? I'm in. I want to party. Meet a new guy. Screw Scott," Lux declared.

"I was gonna say something, but considering the mood you're in, I'm gonna pass," he remarked. "Girls?"

"I think we're all in. Ooh! Shiloh, you should tell Axel to meet us there. I want to meet him after you told us what he looks like!" Charlotte exclaimed.

"How about no?" Percy muttered.

"Perce, you need to get over this," Shiloh said. "Seriously, what are you going to do if I invite him to meet us there?"

"I won't let you go out."

"And how could you stop me if you went out?"

"I'd stay here and guard your door."

Shiloh walked up to Percy and lightly scratched the back of his neck. His reaction was immediate. He hunched his shoulders up to try and stop her, but as he did so, she slid past him and outside into the hallway. Once she stopped tickling his neck, he turned around. She was smirking and said, "I think I could get past you."

"Fine, fine, invite the guy. We'll meet you girls at ten thirty at the twins' room. We'll leave after that." Percy left, leaving four of us excited and my sister ticked off.

"I don't get what his problem with Axel is," Shiloh muttered.

"Maybe he thinks he has competition," Tessa joked.

"You're on crack," my sister replied.

"It's not that far-fetched," Isabelle chimed in. "I swear he always sits next to you when we're all together. He's always been protective of you-"

"Probably because I'm the youngest in the family."

"Semantics. Come on Shiloh, you've never been good at realizing guys like you," Charlotte pointed out. "I cannot tell you how many times I've seen guys staring at you."

"Enough!" Shiloh finally exclaimed, exasperated. "I don't want to hear any more about this. I'm going to my room."

Charlotte, Tessa, Isabelle, and I stared after her, wondering why she'd gotten so upset. It was rare that my sister lost her cool. When Isabelle started to go after her, I grabbed and shook my head. "Let her cool down or else she'll rip your head off."

"What do you think caused that outburst?" Tessa queried.

"I think she genuinely likes Axel as a friend and let's face it, she's never been good with us telling her what to do. Percy trying to stop her from inviting Axel pissed her off more than we know. She'll be fine. Come on, I have to find a smoking hot dress because I intend to look damn good in pictures and I'm going to make sure Scott sees them so he can see exactly what he just lost."

"You are just like your mother. A guy pisses you off? You don't get upset. You get even," Charlotte said.

"You don't achieve anything getting upset. But getting even? There's nothing sweeter."

* * *

><p><strong>Will<strong>

At ten thirty, Jem, Percy, Alec, Henry, Simon, Liam, and I were waiting downstairs for the girls. We'd invited Liam since he was good friends with Simon. I'd never really met him before, just knew of him. But it turned out that we had a lot in common. In fact, a lot. He and I got in a heated discussion in concurrence over the fact that we both thought Marvel movies were better than DC ones. We knew it was just a matter of opinion though, and we respected those who thought DC movies were better even if we couldn't rationalize it.

"Hey guys," Tessa chirped, sliding next to Jem. He wrapped his arm around her, greeting her with a kiss.

"We all ready to go?" Alec questioned, looking around.

"Yep, all ready. Let's go have fun! First off, who's the responsible one tonight?" Lux decreed, grinning from ear to ear. "Because I fully intend to get drunk tonight."

See, the drinking age in Belka was eighteen. Since we were all eighteen or older, all of us could drink. There was no way I was going to be the responsible one. I mean, I don't need to get drunk to have fun, but some of the drinks they have taste incredibly good.

"I'm oldest. I'll be the responsible one," Percy volunteered. "Hang on, we're missing someone… where's Shiloh?"

"She decided to skip going out tonight. Didn't elaborate, just was adamant in not wanting to go out," Lux said.

I noticed a tic in Percy's jaw. He and Shiloh had been avoiding each other, but neither Jem nor I had asked anyone what was going on between them. Now I wanted to know. They'd always been close. What happened? Lux would know. In fact, all of the girls would. They seemed to know everything before us guys.

"I'll go talk to her," I said.

"Me too," Jem added. "We'll meet y'all at the club. Get going. We won't be far behind."

"She may castrate you," Charlotte warned.

"Blonde's in a mood," Tessa added.

"You're blonde," Henry pointed out.

"Seventy percent of us here are blonde. That could mean any one of us blondes could be in a mood," Sophie remarked.

"You're not blonde anymore. You dyed your hair light brown," I said.

"I'm still blonde at heart."

It took some coaxing to get our group to leave without us, but we convinced them after a few minutes of debating about it. Jem and I went up to our sister's room. We could hear music playing from her room- it sounded like Kelly Clarkson getting adamant about… something.

Jem knocked politely. It was promptly followed by our sister shouting, "Lux, if you knock one more time, I'm going to tell Scott you forgive him!"

"I think she might actually murder you for that," I responded. There was some shuffling on her end before she opened the door. Her face was settled into a curious frown. Shiloh didn't need to say anything for us to know she wanted to know what the hell we were doing at her door. "Lux told us you decided not to come."

"We wanted to make sure everything was okay," Jem said.

"Everything's fine. Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because I'm pretty sure you've scared all the girls from speaking to you for a good week. What's up? Percy said you were all coming and then you changed your mind."

"First off, he's ticking me off, and second, the girls kept going on and on about something which I won't go into detail about and they wouldn't shut up about it so no, I don't really want to be around any of them."

"So invite your new friend, what's his name… Axel!" I told her.

"That started the whole argument between me and Percy in the first place," my sister retorted.

"What's he got against him?"

"He didn't tell you?"

"That he's Bernitz's son? No. Lux did. We thought you were off your rocker at first, but then your kind sister pointed out that you've always been good at judging people. She said we shouldn't question you this time either."

"I'd rather have Percy get off my back about this whole thing, and inviting Axel would not help that goal."

Jem grinned. "Then you don't invite him. Let us."

"What?" Shiloh raised her eyebrows.

"You come out tonight, we invite Axel. Therefore, Percy doesn't get mad at you, you get to hang out with your weird friend, and the whole group gets to have a night of fun. Come on, what do you say? We'll wait for you to get ready."

"You're not going to take no for answer, are you?" We shook our heads, which elicited a groan from her. "Fine. I'll hurry as fast as I can. Use my phone to talk to Axel if you're actually serious about inviting him."

Shiloh tossed us her phone and disappeared into her bathroom. Jem and I sat on her bed. We grappled over the phone on who would do the texting, but I won out. In fact, I decided to call him. He picked up the phone on the second ring.

"Hey there, Shiloh," Axel greeted cheerfully. Jokingly, he added, "Long time no talk."

"When was the last time you talked to her?" I laughed.

Dead silence ensued on the phone for a good ten seconds before, "Uh, who is this?"

"Name's Will. I'm her brother."

"Her oldest, correct?"

"Ah, I see she's told you about me. Hopefully all good things. Listen, our group and I are going out clubbing at the Vic. Well, all but me, my brother, and Shiloh are there because _someone _didn't want to go at the last minute," I said. Shiloh yelled at me to shut up; Axel laughed. "You and your friends want to join?"

"Sure, we're actually in town already so we'll meet you there. Thanks for the invitation!"

"Of course man. We'll see you there! May be a while. Shiloh's taking an extremely long time getting ready." At that moment, my sister came out, glaring at me with perfectly curled hair. She growled, "You're going to have my stiletto embedded in your foot if you say another word about me."

"If I'm not at the club Axel, it's because Shiloh murdered me. See you soon!" I hung up as my sister chucked her slipper at me. I narrowly avoided it. After another thirty minutes, my sister had done her makeup, put on her dress and shoes, and readied her purse. She still looked about ready to kill me and Jem for making her go out, but it was worth it. We knew she'd be fine once we got there (hopefully). We hopped on the free night bus to get into town; luckily for us, one of the bus stops itself was practically right outside the Vic, which meant Shiloh didn't have to walk far in her heels, something she was quite happy about. Once inside, the three of us made our way to the bar. Percy was there, drink in hand, chatting with Sophie and Tessa. When the girls saw us, they grinned.

"You got her to come!" Tessa exclaimed. She ran up and hugged Shiloh; Sophie followed in suit.

"Oh, you hug your friend first but not your boyfriend? I see where I stand now," Jem jested.

"I'll make it up to you," Tessa promised, winking at him.

"Smile, Shi! Have some fun tonight!" Sophie encouraged.

"I want a drink," my sister stated bluntly.

"Let's go get you one!" Sophie dragged my sister away. Tessa went with them.

Once they were out of hearing distance, which being in such a loud club, it was a pretty short one, Percy inquired, "Find out what was wrong?"

"She's just in a foul mood. I do recommend not speaking to her tonight though unless spoken to. She's already threatened to impale my foot to the floor with her stalactites or whatever they're called."

"Stilettos, Will. They're called stilettos," Jem said.

"They both impale things."

"Just because they both impale things does not mean they are the same thing."

"Sure it does."

"It does not."

"Does too."

"Does not!"

"Would you two put a sock in it?" Percy interrupted. "She ended up inviting him?"

I followed my friend's gaze. Axel was the result. He was a buff, blonde guy with sharp blue eyes; he had the stereotypical Belkan look. He was talking to Shiloh, and her whole demeanor had changed. My sister looked happier already.

"Actually we did," Jem said.

"You _what_?"

"We invited him. We don't trust him, but we also know that Shiloh is good at judging people's character. If she trusts him, then we want to meet him to see why. We had our reasons for inviting him. Will and I see your side in this, but we also see hers. Tonight, we'll decide whose side we're actually on."

Bartlett's son sighed. "Fine. I'll be polite, but I won't be friendly. I don't trust him."

"Is that because he's Belkan or is it because you like our sister?" I teased.

Percy choked on his drink.

* * *

><p><strong>Percy<strong>

My distrust of Axel went deeper than him just being the son of a Grabacr fighter (and the small fact I liked Shiloh). It was him being the song of a specific one that irked me. It was the fact that he was the son of Grabacr One, Ashley Bernitz; the fact that his father had once been friends with mine but with just one word from his superiors, had put my father as a target meant to be killed, not even neutralized; the fact that he was the one to shoot down my father in the Belkan War and had tried to shoot him down again when he rescued the Prime Minister of Yuktobania with my mother. If it weren't for the Razgriz, my parents may well not have been here. Hell, I wouldn't be here. So no, I didn't trust him. I didn't trust him to be a ruthless machine like his father. I'd heard the stories about him during the Belkan _and_ the Circum-Pacific wars. We all had.

So why did Shiloh trust him?

I tried to rationalize it as I followed Will and Jem over to Bernitz's son so we could introduce ourselves. Nothing came to mind though.

"Hey y'all," Will greeted, resting his head on Sophie's shoulder and eyeing the group.

"Which one are you? Wait, wait, wait, let me guess," Axel started. "You're Will?"

"How'd you know?"

"Because you're Sophie's boyfriend. And Shiloh also said that Jem always looks the calmer of you two."

"Hey!" Will protested, glaring at Shiloh. She smiled.

"And you're Percy. I remember you from the café. How are you doing? How was that movie you saw?" Axel asked amiably.

"It was good! Scary but good," Shiloh answered.

"I'm wondering if you even saw any of it since you watched half of it through your fingers." Jem nudged her.

"At least I didn't throw my popcorn like Henry," she snapped back. They proceeded to talk about horror movies in general and deciding I wasn't interested in the conversation, slipped away without any of them noticing. I went far down the bar and ordered a drink. It was some sort of black vodka drink, but it was pretty good. I scanned the crowd to see if I could find any more of my family. Lux was easiest to spot with her blonde hair bouncing up and down from dancing. She was already drunk and having a blast. Seeing how much fun she was having, I started questioning my decision on being the responsible one tonight.

"Percy!" Lux shouted. I jumped from surprise. I hadn't even seen her come up to me. "What are you doing by yourself? What happened to Sophie and Tessa?"

"They're with your brothers and Shiloh and Axel," I said. "Want me to bring you to them?"

"Yes! And stay with us! Chat! Let's get you drunk!" She grabbed my hand, jumping up and down as she led me through the crowd. Lux pulled her sister into a bear hug. I tried not to laugh at Shiloh's expression but I failed.

"Hi, Lux. You okay?" Shiloh queried, putting her hands on her sister's shoulders to force her to stop fidgeting.

"I'm _wonderful_! Is this Axel?" the oldest Davenport girl eyed him, a sparkle in her eyes.

"Yes, uh, Lux, this is Axel. Axel, this is my older sister, Lux."

"Pleasure to meet you Miss Davenport," Axel said, going in for a handshake. Instead, Lux pulled him towards her and kissed both his cheeks.

"Pleasure to finally meet you too. Sis, I approve. You were right; he is handsome!"

Shiloh shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her cheeks were flushed from embarrassment. Axel, while unable to hold back a grin, managed not to laugh. He commented that he was glad they found him attractive. He was mid-sentence when I heard a very distinct 'boom.' It didn't sound normal. Only Shiloh and Axel seemed to give any indication they'd heard something as well. Since no one else reacted, I dismissed it as someone accidentally crashing into something.

"Hey, hey guys, I have a joke! What did one butt cheek say to the other butt cheek?" Lux asked.

Sophie shook her head, as if knowing what was coming. "What?"

"Don't talk to the middle guy, he's an asshole!" Lux fell into hysterics. Will and Jem grabbed her by the arms and forced her to sit down. At that moment, I heard another boom, and this time, I wasn't the only one who heard it. The club went silent. A few seconds later, screams erupted from the street. Everyone's head snapped in the direction of the door. Smoke started floating in front of the windows. It wasn't from our building, one from somewhere else, but it started sending everyone into a panic. I couldn't stop myself from getting caught up in the wave of people trying to exit the venue. All I could do was grab Lux and help her along. Axel joined me. Jem had grabbed a hold of Tessa and Shiloh's hands. Will and Sophie were a few feet to my right. When we got outside, we hung near the façade of the place so we could grab any more of our friends and family.

"What's going on?" Tessa asked, stretching her neck. Even in her heels though, she couldn't see anything.

"Wait a minute, where's Shiloh?!" I demanded. Just then, gunshots rang out over the cacophony. I hadn't thought it could get any more hectic. I'd been wrong. People ran in every which direction. Screams echoed through the streets. I trusted that Henry, Alec, Isabelle, Charlotte, Lydia, Liam, and Simon had managed to stay together. I knew my group was still where I left them, meaning my foremost concern was finding Shiloh. I yelled her name over and over, hoping she'd hear me. More gunshots were fired.

"Percy!" A familiar voice screamed. I whirled around to my left. The sight was welcome until I saw the terror etched on her face.

"Shiloh, thank god! What happened to you?!"

"Go! Just go! They're right-" she was interrupted by someone, an old man, collapsing next to us, clutching his chest. Blood seeped through his fingers. I stared in horror as I realized he'd been shot. Shiloh and I dropped down next to him. He lifted his bloody hands to our faces and smeared the liquid down our faces and down onto our chests. He barely managed to say, "I can't… save myself, but I-I can save you. _Act dead. Act… dead…_"

The man looked away and he took one final breath. If it hadn't been for Shiloh yanking me down, I would've been shot, because less than three seconds later, men with rifles walked towards us. I was peering through my eyelashes, just enough to see what was happening. They fired at more civilians, and I scarcely avoided cringing when I heard cries from victims being struck. One stood directly over me. I tried to figure out what or who he was. My eyes narrowed in on an insignia on his gun: a dark grey iron cross. I didn't recognize what group it represented, but I knew it was a symbol for who they were well enough. Now if I got out of this alive, I intended to find out who they were.

"Ich habe dir gesagt keine Belkans nicht zu töten!" the man above me said. _I told you not to kill any Belkans!_ That's what the man said. It was times like these when I was thankful I was fluent in multiple languages.

Continuing their conversation, another guy said, "We didn't- ah shit. Boss won't be happy."

The guy above me knelt down, lifting Shiloh's face. How she remained calm, I'll never know. "She's still warm."

"Just means it was a fresh kill. Ignore it. We won't tell the boss. What he doesn't know won't hurt him. Come on, police will be here soon. We need to get out of here. Let's get the others."

The two men left, but I still didn't move. I didn't know if there were any more nearby. I didn't want to find out. Hours seemed to pass before I heard police sirens. Hours seemed to pass before I was shaken out of my act by a jarring scream. Hours seemed to pass before I could move my aching muscles.

"Shiloh!" Will and Jem shouted hysterically.

"I-I'm okay…" she responded. "Percy, where's Percy?"

Groaning, I propped myself up on my arms. "I'm here."

"We need to get you two medics. You're covered in-" Sophie began.

"It's not ours," I said, explaining what the man had done for us before he died himself. Shiloh glanced over at him before lightly brushing her hand over his eyes. When she removed it, his previously open eyes were closed. Will and Jem stared before pulling their little sister into a bone crushing hug. Lux, who had apparently sobered up, threw her arms around my neck.

"God you scared us to death!" she murmured. I returned the hug.

"We're okay, that's all that matters," I said. She pulled back. "Where are the others?"

"They're helping victims that survived. They're all okay though."

"Over here!" A voice called out. We turned our heads. Axel was jogging over to us with about five medics behind him. Upon seeing the blood that covered me and Shiloh, his face paled. "What happened?"

Shiloh explained the story this time. Meanwhile, three of the medics took care of the dead body next to us. The other two took care of me and Shiloh, making sure we sustained no injuries. Except for a good scare, we were unharmed. They gave us towels to wipe the blood off. After getting the red liquid off of ourselves, we handed the towels back to the medics. They got up and left; Axel went with them, telling us he had to continue helping.

"How long have y'all been searching for us?" Shiloh queried.

"You've been missing for about an hour. So many people are dead. So many…" Tessa trailed off.

"They've been able to count twenty in the street so far, but there were bombs in two buildings. They don't know how many perished from those," Sophie added solemnly.

"SWAT teams are going through every building on the street, making sure there's no more bombs. I don't know how we're going to get back to base. It's probably locked down tight," Jem said.

"Just let Alec and Tessa do their charm speaking and we'll be fine," Will commented. "Let's go see if we can find a ride. You two stay here and-"

"No, I'm coming with you. I don't want to get separated from any of you again tonight," Shiloh stated firmly. A feat considering how exhausted she looked. We all got up and made our way towards the ambulances. The rest of our group found us about halfway there. Shiloh and I gave a brief explanation about what happened. No one really questioned us afterwards; maybe they saw how tired we were.

"Hey guys, have you found a ride yet?" Axel questioned, coming up to us.

"No, not yet," Shiloh replied.

"Listen, I have a Yukon that can fit eight of you. I can give you rides back to base, but I won't be able to take all of you at once."

"Take the girls and Percy home. The rest of us guys will stay here," Will ordered. "Thank you, Axel, for helping."

"It's my pleasure." Turning to the rest of us, he said, "I'm parked just a block away. I can't drive it down here because of all the ambulances and cops. Do you mind walking?"

"Not if it means getting home. Show us the way," Lux encouraged. The walk didn't take long, and the ride itself only took ten minutes. I could barely keep my eyes open. Shiloh had given up and slumped over onto Lux's shoulder, sound asleep until Axel pulled up to the gates to the base. Like Jem had predicted, the base was on lockdown, and it took quite some convincing on Axel's part to get them to let us in. I was grateful for him at that moment. Finally, we arrived at the doors to our accommodations building. We filed out slowly, thanking Axel for the ride. We all dragged out feet upstairs and to our rooms. I took a shower, making sure I scrubbed my face and chest well, trying to scrub off the lingering sensation of the dead man's blood. After brushing my teeth, I literally fell onto my bed and closed my eyes, falling asleep within minutes.

* * *

><p><strong>I know the chapter started off slowly but hopefully I ended it with a bang? Who do you think the men were? What did you think overall? Be sure to check out the trailer for the story! Review please :)<strong>


	5. Consolation

**Enjoy everyone!**

**Chapter Quote:  
><strong>"**Which is the true nightmare, the horrific dream that you have in your sleep or the dissatisfied reality that awaits you when you awake?"  
><strong>**~Justin Alcala**

* * *

><p>Chapter 5: Consolation<p>

**Blaze**

I walked into mine and the others' office in Versailles after using the bathroom to find Bartlett, Chopper, Grimm, Snow, Pixy, Cipher, Geller, and Henri all in a pile on the floor, my husband on the bottom facing up.

"What is going on here?" I asked, hands on my hips.

"It's called 'Get Down Mr. President'. The person who suggests it starts it off by pretending to listen to the 'ear piece' and when there's one person left who doesn't have their finger to their ear, all the others yell 'GET DOWN MR. PRESIDENT' and then you pig pile on them. Your poor husband was last one to realize," Cipher said, a massive grin spreading on his face.

"You are acting like children," Cassie commented giving an amused smirk.

"We are children in adult bodies. Hey, we all grew up too fast. We're just catching up on what we missed," Grimm defended.

"Okay, I'll give you that one."

"Blaze… help," Chopper croaked out, looking up at me.

"Boys, get off of him," I ordered as I tried not to laugh. One by one, they got off. Chopper remained on the floor, spread eagle, catching his breath. I knelt down next to him. "You okay?"

"I'm good," he assured, propping himself on his elbows. I kissed him on the forehead before helping him up. "I'm going to get something to eat. Y'all want anything?"

"Can you bring some cookies? Preferably just the cookie dough," Grimm asked hopefully.

"Is there any cake left from Grimm's birthday?" Bartlett added, his eyes sparkling at the thought of the sugary dessert. It'd been this massive four-tiered cake for his fiftieth birthday. I still can't believe I'm this old sometimes. It feels like just yesterday I was being thrust into a world war, being branded a traitor, and being chased by the Gray Men…

"Bartlett, do you remember how big that thing was? Yes, there's definitely some left," I replied.

"Can you carry it all?" Chopper inquired.

"Yeah, I got it. If not, I'll get someone from the kitchen to help. I'll be back." I walked out of the room and headed downstairs to the kitchen. Two chefs were cooking lunch for President Duncan James and his wife. We got along with him really well compared to the last two presidents (thankfully they each only served one term).

"Hello," I greeted cheerfully, opening on the fridge and pulling out the cake.

"Mrs. Davenport," the two men said.

"How are you?" I asked, cutting pieces of cake for me and my family.

"We're good. And how about you?" one of the replied.

"I'm-" I stopped short when my eyes rested on the television behind them. It showed police lights flashing, ambulances parked, EMTs running about, and heaps of bodies in the streets. The caption was 'Massacre in Belka.' I felt my heart speed up. The news station wasn't saying where it happened, but I knew the place well enough. I'd been there enough times to realize that was the town near the Belkan Air Force Academy, the town near the place my kids were currently at.

I scanned the crowds for any sign of my kids or my family's kids. It was difficult to see if any of my kids were there- they looked like Belkans themselves with their blonde hair and blue eyes. Same went with Tessa and Charlotte. Isabelle was the shortest and in the crowd, it would be impossible to see her. Therefore I looked for the boys: Percy, Henry, and Alec. They would be the easiest to spot, particularly Percy. I didn't see him, but I saw Henry and Alec. Charlotte was there along with Lydia. Isabelle came into view with her boyfriend Simon. Then it dawned on me. Those three loved each other but would never hang out in a group unless they were with the rest of the kids, so where _were _the rest of them?

The camera zoomed out and I lost sight of my brother's kids, but my eyes narrowed in on two, semi-bloody bodies near the front. I could only see their faces partially but there was no mistaking on who it was. My legs gave way beneath me. One of the chefs who'd happened to be behind me, caught me before I crashed to the floor.

"Mrs. Davenport?!" he exclaimed in alarm. I ignored him; too many thoughts raced through my head. Why hadn't my kids called me about this? Where were they? Were any of the others… gone as well?

"I need to go call my daughter. I have to go," I said, scrambling up, somehow finding strength to sprint back to my office, cake left forgotten. When I entered the room, the boys had done a pig pile again with Bartlett on the bottom this time. I ignored them though and my husband noticed my frantic demeanor.

"Blaze, what's wrong?" he asked, walking over to me as I threw papers off my desk trying to find my phone. I found it and my hands were shaking so badly that I could barely scroll through my contacts. I went for Shiloh first. Maybe, just maybe, I'd been wrong. Her phone rang and rang and rang but she didn't answer. It went straight to voicemail. By now I was almost having a full out panic attack. My family had gathered around me, trying to get out of me what was wrong but all I could muster out to say was 'news'. Snow got the message and went online. Geller, Rald, and Pixy followed him.

I tried Lux next. I hadn't seen her so I prayed she was okay. I sank down into my chair when I heard her groggy voice say, "Hello?"

"Are you okay?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"And everyone else?"

"We're all okay."

"I saw Shi and Percy on TV and they weren't…" I couldn't get the sentence out but my daughter picked up on my meaning.

"They're alive. She's asleep right now. I heard her phone buzzing but she slept right through it. I can wake her up if you want?"

I didn't want to wake Shiloh up after what she went through last night but I wanted to hear her voice. I needed to hear her for myself. "Yes, please."

"Hey mom," Shiloh said softly.

"What happened to you and Percy?"

"I don't honestly know. We were all at a club when bombs went off in nearby buildings. Ours was fine but everyone ran out onto the streets and we got caught up in it. I got separated from the group because I was trying to grab onto Tessa to get her to our group but missed and got lost. Percy found me but we somehow ended up right in the front where these men were firing guns at innocent people… a man got shot right next to us. He told us that he couldn't save himself but that he could save us, put some of his blood on our faces and chest, and told us to get down. So we did. We pretended to be dead until I heard Will and Jem shouting my name. How did you know that it was just me and Percy?"

"I saw you on TV… you're sure you're all right though? No injuries?"

"None, just shaken up."

"Why didn't you call me or your father or at least texted us that you were okay?" I demanded.

"I'm sorry mom. I was so tired that I didn't even think about it. We got to bed at three."

I placed my head in my hand. "Next time, just shoot me or your father a text saying you're okay. Please."

"I will. Sorry I scared you," Shiloh apologized guiltily.

"I'll let you get some sleep. We'll Skype with you later. I love you so much. Tell Lux and the twins I love them too." My daughter returned the sentiments and we hung up. Chopper knelt down next to me.

"So?" he asked anxiously.

"They're all right. They're all right." I explained briefly how Shiloh and Percy pretended to be dead. Major left the room briefly. Bartlett followed. We all knew they were calling their son.

"Do they know who did it?" Cipher questioned.

"None. If they do, they didn't tell me, but they're so tired I'm not sure they're function correctly at the moment. We'll ask them later."

"Do the police know?"

"That would be a negative," Snow answered. "I've been reading about it, and no one interviewed can shed light on who the attackers were and the attackers themselves left no indication on who they were."

"So do we have a new terrorist group?" Henri asked.

"It doesn't matter if it's new or old. We're taking them down."

"If the kids get wind of who their attackers are, they're going to want to help us find them, and it's better to keep them safe so I say if they give us a clue to who these people were, we don't let it show that we're interested," Henri suggested.

"I don't want to hide anything from them," I said.

"If those terrorists find out that the legacies of the Razgriz were at that shooting, they're going to go after them again to see if they know anything that could help _us_. If they don't, they may let them off the hook."

"That's a… good point. But they could also use our kids as hostages against us. We need to keep an eye on them without them knowing they're being watched."

"I will work on that," Geller offered. I smiled appreciatively at him.

"They've been there a little over a week and trouble has already found them," Bartlett commented.

"Let us hope that is all the trouble they find," I muttered.

Chopper snorted. "They're our kids. Trouble will always find them."

* * *

><p><strong>Jem<strong>

When Will and I knocked on Lux and Shiloh's door, the former opened, looking tired and a tad hung-over.

"Hey, how is she?" I asked.

"Exhausted, perturbed, but okay. She's asleep right now. Mom and dad called. They saw her and Percy on TV when they were faking being dead. Mom was freaking out," Lux said.

"Guess we should've at least texted them," Will remarked sheepishly.

"She said that. She sends her love by the way, dad too. How's Percy? Has anyone seen him?"

"We knocked on the door but I think he's still out cold. We'll check again later. Did any of you think it was weird that Axel just happened to be there when the bombs went off? And how he disappeared during all the commotion?" I queried.

"I was actually wondering the same thing."

"If anyone can ask him without sounding impertinent, it would be Shiloh, but I don't think she'll want to do it. She'll feel bad asking after all the help he gave us last night."

"You guys questioning Axel?" Percy walked up to his in sweatpants and a hoodie.

"Just not trusting his motives. And yes, maybe it does have to do with his heritage but we're giving him the benefit of the doubt since Shi trusts him," I said.

"She inherited that from your mother," Percy chuckled. "Isn't she the one that got Geller and Henri to help her with the war and escaping Rald?"

"Yeah, our mother made interesting friends, but they've all turned into family so if our baby sister got her good judgment, then maybe Axel is one of the good guys," Lux answered.

"Has your mom called?"

"Yeah, freaking out. She's upset we didn't tell her we were all right. Have your parents called you?"

"Yeah," Percy rubbed the back of his head. "Mom was threatening to come out here to make sure we were actually okay. Barely managed to convince her out of that idea. Anyway, I just came over to see if Shi was awake but since she's not, I'll come back later."

"Do you want to leave a message?"

"Nah, I'll see y'all later. I'm going to bed."

"Why did you wake up in the first place?" Will asked, scrunching up his face in confusion.

"I needed to pee really badly and then I was wide awake and now I'm crashing again. See y'all later." Percy left the three of us.

"Shiloh won't be up for ages," Lux finally said.

"Why's that?" I questioned.

"She's more shaken up from last night than I think she even realizes. She had lots of nightmares, kept waking up. I couldn't fall asleep last night so I was usually awake when she woke up. Listen, I'm going to Skype mom and dad. You want to join in, help me alleviate their fears and worries some more?"

"I think mom and dad would kill us if we didn't so yeah," Will muttered. "Think we'll wake up Shiloh?"

"No, she's dead to the world right now. Seems to be sleeping fine now. Come on."

* * *

><p><strong>Shiloh<strong>

I woke up to Lux, Will, and Jem talking to our parents on Skype. I stayed in bed a few minutes, allowing myself to fully wake up. It'd been a rough night's sleep, and Lux knew about it. If she told anyone else, it would only be my brothers. I forced myself to roll out of bed and join my siblings.

"Hey sweetie, how are you?" Mom asked.

"I'm okay, tired, but okay. You?"

"We're good. Worried sick about you four. Have y'all heard anything about who the attackers were?"

"No. No one seems to know who they are or where they came from. I was too busy playing dead to notice anything that might help. I don't know about Percy. Maybe he saw something."

"No, he didn't. Bartlett and Major already talked to him. I'm just glad your four are all right. The president assigned us to look into the matter since it put Osean lives in danger and since it appears to be a terrorist attack. That's sort of our specialty nowadays. Speaking of, we need to get working on that. I'll let y'all go. Be safe, always know where each other are, and I'll talk to you later, okay? We love you."

"Love you too, mom. Love you, dad," we responded simultaneously.

"Is it just me or did it seem like they were hiding something?" Lux asked.

"Maybe they know something about the attack we don't?" Jem suggested. "I mean, their job kind of entails dealing with top secret stuff."

"But I want to know what it is," Lux grumbled. Perking up, she added, "Oh, Percy came by to see you Shiloh."

"Oh?"

"Didn't say why he came over."

"I'll go see him." Leaving my siblings, I shuffled over to Percy's room. I heard music coming from inside. Hopefully he was awake. Percy's been known to fall asleep to rock music so for all I knew, he could be sacked out in his bed. But he was awake. He seemed surprised to see me actually.

"Hey, Lux and the twins told me you came by earlier. Everything okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I just wanted to see how you were holding up… privately. Especially since what we went through last night was-"

"Terrifying?"

"Yeah… here, come on in," he offered, moving away. I entered the room and sat at the foot of the bed, my back against the wall. Percy scratched the back of his head and asked, "So how are you doing?"

"Besides a few nightmares and jumping at anything that even remotely sounds like gunfire, I'm okay. You?"

"Kind of the same deal. It's not the fact that I almost died that's giving me nightmares. It's the guy that saved our lives. I can't get it out of my head." I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say to that. I stayed silent. "And then there's the fact that you and the others could've easily died. You're my family. I'm an only child so you're my… unofficial siblings. I don't know how well I'd handle it if I lost one of you."

"You'd move on. That's the only thing you could do. Remember the good times, maybe bring the terrorists to justice, and live your life the way we would've wanted you to," I said.

Percy stared at me. "Is that what you would do?"

"I'd be like my mom. Let's say you died, and for the record please never let that happen. I'd sob for hours, bottle up my emotions after that, bring whoever killed you to justice, and then wait until something else pushed me over the edge to cry again."

"Your mom is like that?"

"When my dad died, or she thought he did, she was in such hysterics they had to sedate her. Mind you part of her hysterics was that she'd been dreaming of his death for weeks before and had convinced herself she could've stopped it. Then she never cried again until she snuck out to Versailles Palace in the middle of the night where my father was staying, which she didn't even know it was him. She thought it was her friend Henry whom she'd been imprisoned with when Rald captured her. But she went after Ofnir and Grabacr with a passion. They were the leaders of the Gray Men at the time and she was determined to bring them down. And she did. She shot all of them down at the final battle of the war."

"Your mom is terrifying when she flies," Percy remarked.

"Imagine how the enemy felt," I laughed.

"I think I'd just eject."

"But my point is you can't wallow in it. If any of us died, we wouldn't want you to. Yes it would hurt. Yes it would be horrible. But you can't let it control you."

"How do you know all this?"

I shrugged. "I guess it comes from not knowing my godfather after he did so much for my mom, my dad, and me."

"Blaze was pregnant with you when the Emmerians and Estovakians were at war, wasn't she?"

"Yeah, and if it weren't for my godfather, she would've died giving birth to me. And then he died trying to keep Emmeria. He held me in his last few minutes. I wish I remembered that but I was just a newborn… mom told me the story when I was thirteen. She thought I was finally old enough to understand what had happened. I cried all that night because I was so upset that I'd never met him and that I never would. But then I realized he wouldn't want me to be upset. He'd want me to live my life and be happy. So I did. I never forgot him, and his wings are in my room back home along with some of his medals. Then I have a picture of him holding me when I just got out of the NICU as a Christmas ornament. Those are as close to him as I'll get, and I'm grateful I have that much."

"He'd be proud of you."

"I like to think so. You okay now?"

"Yeah. Thanks Shi."

"Hey, we're family for a reason. I'm going to stay in bed all day. Today is just a lazy day and hey, with no classes, I don't see a reason to get up."

Percy laughed. "Sounds good. Maybe I'll come join later."

"I'd enjoy that," I said. "If you don't, then I'll see you at dinner."

* * *

><p><strong>Percy<strong>

When Shiloh left the room, I opened my laptop again. I hadn't wanted anyone to see what I was looking into. _I _didn't even know what I was looking into. I'd told my parents about the Iron Cross symbol that I saw one of the gunmen wearing. They'd dismissed it as a symbol that probably meant something to that specific person. I wasn't so sure. But before I discussed my ideas with anyone else, I wanted to know what it meant. I wanted to know what was going on. I couldn't ask Henry and Charlotte for any stuff they might have on the topic. They'd question me about it and if I didn't tell them, they'd tell the others about my suspicious activities and then they'd send Shiloh after me because we all know if you want to get something out of someone, you send Shiloh after them. She's just one of those people that you will spill your whole life story to her, whether you know her or if she's a complete stranger to you. Blaze was the same way at Shiloh's age and apparently still is.

No. What I was doing needed to stay a secret until I knew exactly what the Iron Cross meant and what finding out about it led me to.

* * *

><p><strong>What is Percy getting himself into? Review :)<strong>


	6. Cross Reference

**It's about time I update this story. Enjoy :)**

**Chapter Quote:  
><strong>"**While all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive."  
><strong>**~Sissela Bok**

* * *

><p>Chapter 6: Cross-Reference<p>

I hit a dead end about two weeks into my research of the Iron Cross. I decided I needed help and from someone none of my friends would suspect I'd go to. It had to be someone none of us talked to, and I had the perfect candidate. Her name was Allison Bells. She was pretty reclusive and didn't talk much to anyone, but when it came to cracking codes, she was an absolute genius.

I knocked on her bedroom door, politely yet anxiously waiting for her to open up. I didn't want any of my family crossing paths with me because then I'd have to explain why I was at this kid's door and that wouldn't go well.

Thankfully she answered my knocking pretty quickly. She stared at me curiously and said, "Percy Bartlett, right?"

"That's me. Allison Bells?" I said.

"Yeah. What can I do for you?"

"I need your help with something. It's top secret and I can't have my friends knowing. I need someone smart and considering you're pretty damn good at codebreaking from what I hear… I know it's a long shot asking you to do this, but would you be willing to help me out?"

She stared at me. "I will but you owe me something in return."

"What?"

"You tell me exactly why your friends can't know."

"Deal." She moved aside so I could enter. I sat on the edge of her bed and pulled out my laptop. She pulled her desk chair up in front of me, taking a seat as well. "Okay, so the night that the terrorists attacked, I pretended to play dead so they wouldn't shoot Shiloh or me. But I noticed that one of them had an Iron Cross on his gun. I've been researching it trying to see if any group identifies with it."

Allison snatched my computer off my lap. "No military I know of uses that symbol. And no current, meaning in the past fifteen years, terrorist organization I know of uses that symbol. But have you looked into past ones? Maybe it's an old group trying to make a comeback or something. I mean they're certainly starting off with a massacre like that."

"My first guess was the Gray Men but I looked into their history and found nothing about the Iron Cross," I said.

"Didn't the Gray Men go down when your godmother shot Grabacr and Ofnir down?"

"That's what I thought, but I just have this… feeling it's them. But I need proof."

"Give me a few days. I'll figure it out. If we want any real information, we'd need to get into some government files."

"Where would we get those?"

"It's the twenty-first century, Bartlett. There's a thing called the digitalization of files and another thing called 'hacking'. I can put up a firewall, make it damn near impossible for them to track me. We'll be fine. I know you won't be here much longer, so I'll hurry, but if I can't do it before you leave, I'll send you the information via mail. Can't trust the internet for the exact reason I'm using to try and get the files. Why aren't you having your friends helping though? Aren't two of them super-geniuses like me at this stuff too?"

"Isabelle is. And I'm not telling them because I think they'd think I'm off my rocker. Maybe not Shiloh but I want definitive proof before I show them anything. On top of that, my parents acted weird when I told them about the Iron Cross. They said it was nothing but you know that look parents get when they're hiding something from you?"

"No, I haven't talked to my parents in years. They kicked me out when I was sixteen."

"Oh…"

"They didn't necessarily agree with my… extracurricular activities."

"What were you doing? Hacking things?"

"No, dating."

"What's so bad about dating? Were they super strict or something?"

"They wanted me to date people I had no interest in. They tried to hook me up with this guy named Josh, another boy named Cody, some guy named Terrell? I don't remember. I just know I didn't root for that team."

It took me a second to register what she meant. "I say you should date whatever gender floats your boat. And hey, look at you now, all kicking ass and hacking into government websites like a badass."

Allison actually smiled a little bit. "You're a good guy Percy. If only my parents thought the same way you did. I'll get working on this and I'll let you know when I'm done."

"Thanks Allison." I left her room. Jet engines caught my attention. Peering outside, I saw fighter jets flying around. It was a hop, and there were two teams. I grinned when I realized it was the girls' time to fly the planes against the Belkans. I really hoped the girls put them in the Belkans in their place.

* * *

><p><strong>Shiloh<strong>

We'd been up and flying for about ten minutes, with neither team making much headway. We'd been put into groups so naturally it was Oseans versus Belkans. I was paired with my brothers and Lux. My sister and I could definitely handle ourselves out there but what was ticking me off was the fact the Belkan pilots were purposefully targeting me and Lux. They only paid attention to my brothers if Will and Jem were about to get a missile lock on them. I had two planes following me. I kept trying to think of an evasive maneuver I hadn't thought of yet. I'd used every one in the book so it was time to make up my own, or use my mom's famous one the first time she ever went on a mission.

I leveled my plane but kept it going fast to lead them into a false sense of security. Will came onto the microphone and said, "What are you doing?!"

"I'm bringing them in closer," I replied.

"All right, Maverick, you do that," Jem laughed.

"Thanks for encouragement, Iceman."

"No, I'm Iceman. I'm the better looking one," Will commented.

There was silence over the radio for a few seconds before Jem remarked, "We are twins. Identical twins. We look exactly alike."

"I have better clothes."

"We dress the exact same way."

"I have a better sense of humor."

"You have a stupid sense of humor."

"My point is currently being made."

"Maybe you should be Hollywood, he always did have a stick up his-"

"We have found the Pixy and Cipher of the group," Lux interrupted.

"God help whoever their captain is when they get assigned a base," I said. "All right, who's ready to see some pissed off guys?"

I slammed on my brakes and went up. The two planes trailing me shot past me. I leveled off behind them and latched on to the closest one, easily getting a missile lock on them.

"One bandit is down. Three more to go," I announced.

"Guys, I have an idea. Keep them occupied," Lux ordered. My sister broke off from the group, disappearing behind one of the mountains. Two of the three planes started going after her but they had to break it off when my brothers shot after them. I held my own against the third plane. A few seconds later I saw Lux shoot up vertically into the sky. One of the two planes my brothers had been keeping at bay went after her. It was having trouble catching up because she'd been going so fast. Just as she was about to enter the altitude that would make her plane stall, she pulled a 'mom' by slamming on her brakes. The plane trailing her shot past. She was already high-tailing it out of there by the time the Belkan was able to flip his plane around. Will was there to meet him with a missile lock though and that was the second Belkan sent out of commission in the hop. There were only two more left.

Amusingly enough, one of the pilots was in so much rage from watching what Lux and Will did that he failed to see Jem coming up from underneath him. My brother got a lock on him and was out. The last plane put up a good fight but I took care of him simply by not letting him out of my sights and biding my time. I had no other planes to worry about but I kept my eyes on my surroundings, just in case the instructors didn't like the Oseans kicking their students' asses and sent something up to beat _us_. However, no surprises came and I got the last plane out. My brothers, sisters, and I hollered in victory. When we landed, we were greeted by our instructors. For the most part, everyone's faces were stoic, but a few of the younger cadets who'd been watching were grinning.

"Congratulations, you've won this hop," Adler said. A younger guy was standing next to him, one I had never seen before. In fact, he looked a lot like Adler, making me wonder if that was his son. "Markus will lead you back to the classrooms."

Once we were out of ear shot from the commanders, Markus said, "You're the Davenports, right?"

"Yes, sir," I replied.

"Axel told me about you. It's a pleasure to meet you," he told us with a smile.

"You know Axel?"

"Yes, ma'am. You're Shiloh?"

"Yes. How do you know him?"

"We're good friends. I work on the same aircraft carrier as him. Or will. We're being reassigned in a few months. That was some impressive flying. You're definitely the legacies of the Razgriz," he complimented.

"How is Axel? I haven't talked to him really since the terrorist attack in the town."

"He's good. He's been working overtime volunteering and trying to help clean up the city from it."

"Has he always been into volunteering for stuff like that?" Jem queried.

Markus nodded. "I think he wants to give his family name a new meaning, not one that's associated with the horrors of the Gray Men. I get it."

"So, getting away from that depressing subject of those lunatics, what's up with Adler? Did we do something to him that we don't know of? Because I'm getting this feeling he hates us," Will commented.

"He doesn't hate you. In fact, he thinks you're all brilliant. But he does have a slight grudge against your parents even though he understands they had no choice and really couldn't help it."

"What did our parents do?" Lux questioned, almost putting it as a challenge. I nudged her, glaring at her to settle down.

Markus rubbed the back of his head. "Let's just say Axel isn't the only kid of the Gray Men that you've now met."

"You dad was a–"

"Yes. Ofnir Two. See, Adler is my grandfather. He took me in after my dad got imprisoned for life. That was your parents' doing but he understands that. In fact he thinks he deserves it. My grandfather never agreed with the politics and beliefs of the Gray Men. Then there was my uncle who was actually the complete polar opposite of my dad, more like my grandfather, but he worked for the BAF during the war as well. He was never as good of a fighter pilot as my dad but you know, he was still the Belkan Air Force. Anyway, he was assigned to attack your parents when the Belkans attacked them over the Vladimir Mountains. I don't think any of the pilots thought your parents would turn around a fight. It caught them off guard. My uncle survived the crash but his injuries killed him. My grandfather was always bitter about that. If it's any consolation, he thinks your dad is hysterical. And he has a lot of respect for your parents as fighter pilots and people. He just still has a grudge against them," Markus explained.

"So, say our parents were on base, what would he do if he saw them?" Lux inquired, staring into the distance.

"He'd be polite. Not friendly, not rude, but polite. I think."

"I guess we'll find out," she said, nodding towards the distance. I grinned when I saw my mom and my uncle Genette talking to some of the mechanics. For being in her forties, my mother still looked like a million bucks; I hoped I aged as gracefully as she did. She wore a royal blue dress with quarter-length sleeves, black peep toe shoes, and simple gold jewelry. Her blonde hair tumbled down her back and it still amazes me that she doesn't have more gray hairs, especially considering she raised four kids. I mean, Lux and I were easy, but my brothers?

She held a clipboard in her arms. My uncle wore a polo shirt and black suit pants. I don't know what he said but my mother punched him in the arm. He only laughed. The mechanics were grinning, said something, and dismissed themselves from the conversation.

"What do we have here?" Jem called out. "Are we in trouble? Did you really believe me and Will and when we said we'd gotten tattoos on our back and came to lecture us?"

"I wouldn't care if you got tattoos. It's not like I don't have one," she said. Will and Jem's mouths fell open. "Kidding. I don't. But really, I won't mind if you get a tattoo. As long as it's tasteful. How are you doing?"

She and my uncle hugged all of us as Lux responded, "We're good. We just got done with a hop."

"Did you win?"

"Yes. The Belkans weren't happy about that though. Especially since they got beaten by two girls," I added.

"Show them what you're made of," my mom encouraged.

"So why _are_ you here? Did you come to check up on us?" Will questioned.

"While I'm not complaining about having an excuse to come and see you, I did not come here to check on you. I'm here on business. Duncan wants to see if the air force academy can be improved in their teaching methods. Flying-wise they're fine, but when it comes to actual classroom teaching, he questions it. Genette, Bartlett and I are here, your father, Grimm- god help him because we know Chopper is going to pick on him- and Major are in Yuktobania. Nagase, Snow, and Geller are in Emmeria. Henri, Cipher, and Pixy are holding down the fort back in Osea. I'm afraid your uncle and I have to leave now but we're kidnapping all you kids later to go out to eat. The base commander already knows of this. We'll see you later. We have to find Bartlett, make sure he hasn't taken over teaching a class. You know he would. I'll see you later. If you see the other kids, let them know of tonight's plans. And Markus, you're very welcome to come," my mother added with a smile at him.

"Thank you, Mrs. Davenport, but I must decline. I am leaving town tonight to go back to my aircraft carrier," Markus said.

"Very well. We'll see you later. Love you!"

"Love you!" My siblings and I said simultaneously.

* * *

><p><strong>Genette<strong>

My sister and I walked down the corridors of the main campus in an attempt to find Bartlett, peering briefly into classrooms. He wasn't responding to our texts so that meant two things: he'd gotten himself into trouble or he had taken over teaching a classroom. Either scenario was bad.

"Found him," Blaze announced, opening a classroom door. I followed her. The class was packed with students, staring intently at Bartlett who was drawing some sort of diagram on the board. The lecturer was nowhere to be seen so I wondered if my comrade had scared him off. I saw Percy and Alec sitting next to each other, both laughing, which I soon noticed _everyone_ was laughing.

"Ah! You two finally found your way," Bartlett said.

"And you finally lost it," I countered.

"What are you doing?" Blaze queried, staring in total confusion at the white board. I turned my head different ways to see if I could understand what he was drawing. It didn't help.

"I'm teaching them," Bartlett responded.

"What did you do to the lecturer?" Blaze asked in mock seriousness. The kids snickered.

"Absolutely nothing. He saw me, saw the interest the kids had in me and my stories, gave them the day off. But he also may've been called down to the Base Commander's office so I'm 'teaching' them."

"Exactly what are you teaching them and what is this thing on the board?"

"He's teaching us how to keep up foreign relations!" Percy shouted from the back. I snorted.

"You mean like this?" Blaze said, flipping off Bartlett.

"This is a classroom. You can't be doing stuff like that!" Bartlett scolded.

"It's university. Pretty sure the middle finger isn't the worst they've seen." There was a murmuring of agreement.

"Did you ever keep up foreign relations Aunt Blaze?" Alec yelled.

"I think I may've done it once. It's your Uncle Chopper who was famous for it. Repeatedly got compared to Charlie Sheen," she replied.

"Lecturer is coming back!" a student informed hurriedly. The others quickly put on a stoic face. Bartlett erased the whiteboard and started speaking about evasive maneuvers. Just as the lecturer entered the room, Bartlett was saying, "Can anyone tell me what- ah, you're back. I guess this concludes my part of the lecture. It's all your Turk."

My comrade motioned for us to leave the lecture room. We winked at our two kids in the back of the room before leaving. Once out of there, Blaze said, "Genette, you owe me twenty bucks."

I groaned as I handed my sister the money. Bartlett stared at us before asking why I owed her money although I'm pretty sure he knew. I explained telling him Blaze and I bet on where he was. She had decided he'd taken over the classroom. I'd thought something had happened to him, probably his cellphone had died.

"Let's head back to the hotel. The day is almost over and we have four more days to research all this. We'll get some input from our kids, interview other kids here as well. And I want to change out of this outfit. I love looking sharp but I love sweatpants more," Blaze mused.

The three of us left and went back to the hotel. I had just changed into jeans and a tee shirt when Blaze texted me and Bartlett to come to her room. We had keys so we just went in. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed, staring intently at her computer. Bartlett and I sat on each side of her. A picture of the soldiers in the Circum-Pacific War took up the entire computer screen. I noticed it was of enemy soldiers and I wondered why she was looking at it. Bartlett voiced this opinion as well.

"Look at the guns," she instructed. There were about twenty of the weapons in the picture so it took me a couple minutes to actually see what she was referring to. I pointed to it, saying, "The Iron Cross. The one Percy saw when they were attacked in Parsberg. It's on that gun. But why isn't it on the others?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. This is a long shot but what if the person in this photograph is linked to the terrorist organization that attacked the town of Parsberg?"

"It's plausible. We need to find out the name of that soldier. Hopefully he's still alive. Because maybe if he _is_ alive, we can ask him what the cross means."

"That's going to be hard to do. That soldier is definitely Yuktobanian. Look at the markings on his uniform," Bartlett said. My sister and I simultaneously groaned.

"The Yuktobanian government may love us overall but they don't love us enough to access their military database to check into this," I pointed out.

Blaze bit her lip. "Maybe _we_ don't have to do it. Maybe we can have someone else do it for us. Nikanor said if we ever needed anything, we could ask. It was in return for saving his life. We're not going to be able to get see those files ourselves, but maybe Nikanor still has some strings he can pull in their government to send us the information in the files."

"You think he'd be willing to do that?" Bartlett asked.

"It's worth a shot."

"And if he says no or he can't pull it off?" I added.

"That's what Geller is for."

"Are you seriously suggesting we hack into the Yuktobanian military database?"

"I'm willing to do whatever it takes to find the people who massacred eighty people, injured a hundred plus more, and nearly murdered our children," Blaze replied firmly. I saw the spark in her flare up again. I hadn't seen her so passionate about capturing someone since the Gray Men had tried to kill us.

"You heard her. I'll go call Nastasya and see if she'll call Nikanor for us. You know he's always been a sucker for her," Bartlett laughed.

"I'll call Chopper and Cipher. Genette, you call Nagase. We need to update them on everything that's going on," Blaze said.

"Got it," I replied.

"Oh, and Genette?"

"Hmm?"

"Could you call the restaurant to make a reservation? I forgot…"

I laughed. "Sure thing little sister."

"You know I hate when you call me that."

"And that's why I do."

* * *

><p><strong>Percy<strong>

I was just heading out of the class my dad had so amusingly interrupted when my phone buzzed. It was a text from Allison telling me that she had the info I requested. I tried not to show my surprise to Alec who was animatedly talking about… something.

"Hey man, I gotta run. I'll catch up with you later, okay?" I said, not giving him a chance to respond as I briskly walked off to Allison's room. She opened the door before I even knocked. "How did you do that so fast?"

"Like you said, you heard I'm good. I am. Now sit," she ordered. She sat next to me with her laptop and pulled up a picture of the trenches. "Tell me what you see on the guns. My eyes instantly narrowed in on the Iron Cross that was emblazoned on a gun. Allison nodded and explained, "This picture is from the Circum-Pacific War. It's the battle that Blaze, Grimm, and Nagase helped the Army storm Cruik Fortress. That's when the Gray Men were still around. About a two hundred men were arrested for being in league with the Gray Men. Analyzing the color and style of the uniform, that soldier with the Iron Cross on his gun is Yuktobanian. I sharpened the image enough to get the last four letters of the soldier's name. I then hacked into the Yuktobanian military database and searched for names with those last four letters. There weren't many. I then cross-referenced that with who was fighting at Cruik Fortress and I came up with this name: Maxim Zykov. He was arrested for being linked to the Gray Men. I went a step further and looked up other names that had been arrested for charges of being with the Gray Men. I found three more that I found pictures of with their guns, and each one of them has an Iron Cross somewhere on their body. One man has an Iron Cross ring. Another had an Iron Cross on his shoe. The third had an Iron Cross on his gun as well. I think it's a hidden signal that's been over looked because it's not consistent in where they're wearing them. Maybe if all the people in the Gray Men had had an Iron Cross on their gun or had all worn an Iron Cross ring, the link may've been found. But I think you're right. Whoever attacked Parsberg, they either used to be part of the Gray Men or there's a new leader of the Gray Men throwing out orders."

I clasped my hands together, wrapping my head around the fact that I'd nearly been murdered by the same group that had tried to murder my parents. "But why attack Parsberg? What was so important there that the Gray Men needed to commit a massacre?"

"I thought about that too. At first I thought that maybe whoever is leading the Gray Men knew you were in town and wanted revenge against your parents by killing you. But that was a last minute decision. And you could've been anywhere in the town."

"So next step is to figure out why they attacked the town," I said. "Allison, you've been a wonderful help. I don't know how I can repay you."

"By letting me help some more? I haven't had this much excitement in a long time. And to think I could possibly help the Razgriz? Well that's a dream come true for me," she admitted.

"You really want to help? I mean I would love the help but if the Gray Men really are behind this, and they find out we're onto them, they could come after not only me, but you too, and not to just to chastise us for hacking into stuff."

"We're in the military. Throwing our life on the line is kind of our job. Count me in."

"You're the best. Brainstorm why the Gray Men massacred Parsberg, and if we figure that out, I think we'll be on the right track of figuring out what they want overall."

"You got it Bartlett. See you soon."

"See you later, genius."

* * *

><p><strong>And the plot thickens. Review please :)<strong>


	7. Collision

**Enjoy :)**

**Chapter Quote:  
><strong>"**Be sure you positively identify your target before you pull the trigger."  
><strong>**~Tom Flynn**

* * *

><p>Chapter 7: Collision<p>

**Alec**

"Hey Perce?" Shiloh asked as she took a bite of her fry. We were all seated at the lunch table. The Belkans didn't like to sit with us. We didn't really care. It's not like we'd be here for much longer.

"Hmm?" he replied, looking up at her.

"Who's Allison?"

My friend choked on his food. Will slammed his hand onto his back. Percy glowered at him. "Ow! Thank you for that." He shook his head and faced Shiloh. "What do you mean who's Allison?"

She nodded towards his phone. "Your phone is ringing. Allison is calling."

"Oh…" Percy hastily picked up his phone. Shiloh returned to her conversation with Lux but I could tell she was eavesdropping on the phone conversation. In all honesty, I was to. There were no secrets in our family, so why Percy hadn't told us about this Allison girl was suspicious.

"Hey Ally… yeah… awesome… uh, yeah… mmhmm… well have you tried… even the Osean government… uh huh, see, you didn't try everything… still a genius… talk to you later… let me know if you need any more help." Percy hung up. I stared at him inquisitively. "What?"

"Ally? Already have a nickname for her? And 'still a genius'? Something you want to share?" I inquired.

"No. It's a girl in one of my classes. She needs help on one of her assignments. Considering I know more about Osea than she does, she asked for my help. No big deal. If it was, don't you think I would've told you about her?"

"What about the 'still a genius' part?"

"She's one of the top in class. Brilliant student. Listen, I have to go. I promised my parents I'd Skype them after I ate lunch, wanted to make sure they both got to Yuktobania all right. I'll see you later." Percy excused himself from the table. We all watched him go. Once he was out of ear shot, Henry said, "Well he's acting weird."

"Think he might be dating that Allison girl and he doesn't want us to know?" Charlotte suggested.

"Why would he hide that? We're family! We tell each other everything!" Will pointed out.

"Not everything," Shiloh corrected.

The twins narrowed their eyes at their baby sister. "What are _you_ hiding?"

"Nothing. On that note, I have to go. I have work to do before I go out later. Bye!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, where are you going tonight?" Jem demanded.

She grinned. "You'll find out tomorrow."

"She has a date," Lux informed. "One of the Belkans asked her out."

"Which one?" I asked.

"Yeah, which one?" the twins echoed.

"I want to meet him," Will said.

"I want to talk to him," Jem added.

"I don't know. She just told me she had a date, no name, nothing. I think the bigger question is what is Percy hiding? There's something more than just that Allison girl. He wasn't smiling like he fancied her or anything when he was talking to her. I think it's a totally platonic relationship there. But why does he need her help and why didn't he come to us?"

"He's been off ever since the attack. I mean we're all pretty shaken up by it but he and Shiloh _saw_ the guys. Maybe he's just still… I don't know, thrown by the whole thing. It was barely over two weeks ago," Tessa pointed out.

"Yeah, you're right. Maybe we'll put Shiloh to the task. She can get anything out of anyone," I said.

"I'll talk to her when I go back to the room. In the meantime, Liam and I are working on a project so I'll see y'all later." Lux got up and left.

"Is everyone going on dates tonight or something?" Will remarked confusedly. "Percy and Allison, Shiloh and the mystery guy, Lux and Liam. Anyone else going?"

"Nope. I'm in studying all night. Lydia is working in the lab all day with Simon," Isabelle replied.

Will groaned. "I'm going to go find Sophie. Maybe she can give me some insight on what's wrong with everyone. She has a sixth sense for that sort of thing."

The twins both left after that. The rest of us got up too. I headed to my dorm where I plopped down on my bed and started doing homework. I wondered where Percy was. He was my roommate so unless he went off campus to Skype his parents, then what he said earlier was a lie.

As if echoing my thoughts, Henry came in and asked, "Where's Percy? I thought he was talking to his parents."

"So did I. There's something strange here. Want to help me find out what?"

"Of course. What kind of question is that?" Henry rolled his eyes at me. "Want me to hack into- oh wait, he took his laptop. Never mind. I was going to say I could hack into his laptop but he took it with him wherever he went. Maybe tonight."

"If we can't get anything out of him, then yes, you can hack into it tonight," I said. The two of us went to doing our homework. It wasn't bad, just tedious. I let myself have a fifteen minute nap after every five problems.

Five hours later, Percy entered the room. He appeared exhausted and almost… worried?

"You okay, man? You don't look so good," Henry commented.

My friend collapsed onto his bed. "Yeah, I'm just super tired. I was helping Allison on some of her work after I Skyped my parents. That girl is very thorough."

"Are you sure you're okay? You've been acting strange ever since the attack."

"I nearly got shot in the head Alec. If it hadn't been for that old man and Shiloh dragging me down, I wouldn't be here right now." He sighed. "Sorry, I'm not meaning to sound snappish. What I'm trying to say is that it's still getting to me. That's all."

"All right. Well if you need anything, let us know." Henry and I went back to our work but I wasn't letting this go. Whatever was bothering Percy was more than just the attack. Allison was involved somehow but in what way, I had no idea. And if she knew she was involved in the mess, she'd be hiding that she was helping Percy. Somehow I was going to find that secret. And that somehow was Shiloh.

* * *

><p><strong>Shiloh<strong>

My date, Ansel, picked me up right on time. He drove normally all the way to the restaurant which was an hour away (by normally I mean no speeding or crazy swerving in between cars). He opened doors for me. Ansel was pretty much acting the perfect gentleman. So I thought what could go wrong with tonight?

The answer: a lot.

Dinner started out fine. We were sitting close together in a booth, ate an appetizer that was to die for, and ordered our main courses. It was when we were finishing our main dish that things started to spiral downward. I had just put my fork down when he placed his hand on my knee. At first I was okay with it, I mean it was on my knee. But then he started moving it up my leg.

"Whoa there," I said, placing my hand firmly on his to stop his from moving it any further. "Stop."

"Oh come on, it's not like anyone can see what's going on," he whispered into my ear. He started to kiss my neck. Disgusted, I backed away from him and said firmly, "I said stop."

"Don't be like that. Do you want to take this somewhere else? Maybe in my car or something?" Ansel queried.

"I'd rather walk all the way back to base than get in your damn car," I growled.

"_That_ can be arranged. Find a new way home bitch."

"That's Miss Bitch to you." I stood up. "And you're still paying for this meal."

Before he could respond, I walked off. When our waitress saw me, she quickly pulled me to the side and asked, "Are you okay, miss? Was your meal bad?"

"Oh, no, the meal was wonderful. It's my date that's bad. Thank you for such great service. Since I have a feeling he's not going to tip, here," I replied, handing her a wad of cash.

"Thank you! Do you have a ride home? Do you want me to call a cab for you?"

"No, I'm just going to call my family, but thank you for everything."

"At least let me get you some dessert, on the house. Come on, I'll show you the dessert menu. Connor, can you take over for me a few minutes?"

"Sure thing Elise." Elise led me to the back of the room and showed me the dessert menu. I ended up ordering an apple cobbler. While she put in my order, I called my brothers. Neither of them answer their phone. They were either asleep or they were with Sophie and Tessa. Lux was sleeping and if I called her, she'd sleep through it. One thing that ran in my entire family was our ability to sleep through _anything _and _everything_. My parents weren't as bad now that they had kids. They always woke up on the first ring.

My next best option was Alec. Like me he was always awake late at night. I dialed his number and waited impatiently for him to pick up.

"Hello?" Percy greeted.

"You're not Alec," I stated.

Percy laughed. "No, he's in the bathroom. What's up?"

"Um, it's a long story but I kind of need a ride home. I was hoping Alec would be up to driving an hour away to pick me up."

"What happened Shiloh?" He inquired seriously.

I sighed. "To make the story short, I had a date, the date went bad, I walked out on the date, and now I need a ride home."

"Where are you? I'm leaving now."

"Don't you have Alec's phone?"

"Oh… right. Text me the address on my phone and I'll head over there immediately."

"All right. Thank you Percy."

"Of course. I'll be there as soon as possible."

"Be careful. The roads are icy."

"I will. Hang tight. Oh, Alec's out of the bathroom. He wants to talk to you. See you soon." There were a couple a seconds of silence before my cousin picked up. "What the hell happened?!"

"Bad date. Bad idea. Percy is coming to pick me up," I explained as I texted the address of the restaurant to Percy.

"Just wait until your brothers, me, Henry, and Perce get a hold of the guy," Alec growled.

"You don't even know the guy's name. I never told you it. And the latter had no idea I had a date tonight. Anyway, my waitress gave me a dessert on the house. So I'm just waiting for that and to be picked up. What are you doing?"

"Studying for my test. Lydia's helping me tomorrow. I'm not ready for this thing."

"Oh you'll do fine. You always do. I don't want to keep you from studying though so I'll let you go."

"Only if you don't mind. You're more important than studying you know."

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. You go study so you kick that test's butt and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Fine. But you can call me if you need absolutely anything. Be careful driving home. It's really throwing down snow here."

"It's just now starting to snow here but I hope it's not too bad. Percy and I will just have to be careful. Talk to you soon." The two of us hung up. Not long after, Elise brought me my apple cobbler. I'm pretty sure she gave me a piece double or triple the size of a normal serving because the thing was huge. I thanked her profusely for it. She went back to serving tables while I ate my dessert. For such a bad date, it was certainly a rather good end to it. I mean I got free dessert. Who doesn't love that?

As I waited for Percy, I pulled out my Kindle from my purse and began reading my favorite book: _Pride and Prejudice_.

* * *

><p><strong>Percy<strong>

After an hour and a half, I arrived at the restaurant. I ran inside, anxiously searching for Shiloh. I found her sitting in a corner in the waiting room reading her Kindle, ignoring everything around her.

"Hey, I'm so sorry it took me so long," I said, walking up to her.

She looked up at me. A smile spread across her face as she stood up and hugged me. "Hi! No, don't worry about it. Thank you so much for picking me up. I really appreciate it. I really did not want to call a cab home. That'd be so expensive. Was the drive bad?"

"Not awful but a little scary in some parts. We should start heading back before it gets worse. Come on." Grabbing her hand, the two of us left the restaurant. Once inside the car, I turned the heat on because it was absolutely freezing outside. In fact my windshield was fogging up when the heat turned on. Shiloh wrapped herself tightly in her coat.

I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the freeway. Traffic was slow due an accident that happened about a mile up ahead. I took that time to interrogate Shiloh about who the guy was and where he could be found. Her brothers would want to know. They were going to lose their minds when they found out what happened.

"Percy, calm down," Shiloh consoled. "There's no use getting riled up about it."

"I know but the guy was an ass. He's going to get what's coming to him."

"Karma will take care of that."

"Karma's initials are 'Will','Jem', 'Percy', 'Alec', and 'Henry'."

She smiled. "I do want to talk to you about something."

"What about?" I answered, looking at the wreck as I drove past it. The traffic went by much faster. I got into the left hand lane because the car in front of me was going about twenty miles an hour. The roads were bad but not _that_ bad.

"I wanted to ask how you were doing since the attack in Parsberg. You've seemed… distracted lately."

My guard went up. How could this situation be explained without telling her everything? "I don't know. I guess I can't get it all out of my head. I want to know who it was and why they did it, but there's been no leads in the investigation."

"Our parents will figure it out. They always do. What happened was terrifying Percy, and I still have nightmares about it, but you can't keep thinking about it constantly. It will eat you up inside. Don't let the enemy do that to you."

"I'll try. I just wish our parents would tell us what's going on in the investigation."

"Honestly, I do too. I guess they're trying to protect us. I mean they've all seen things we couldn't imagine. I'm sure it's really scary for them to think that maybe someone is targeting them or their kids."

"You think someone's targeting us?"

"It's not a long shot really. We're the kids of the Razgriz. Our parents weren't called the Demons of Razgriz for nothing. I'm sure there's a lot of people who would like to harm them or those close to them. What better way to hurt a parent than to go after their kids? Then it also crossed my mind that whoever attacked us had no idea where we'd be that night and wouldn't have been able to organize a group like we saw on such short notice so my other idea is that it was a distraction. They needed a big distraction so they could get something they wanted of high security with having as little resistance as possible. Does that make sense?"

I tried to hide the excitement out of my voice as I agreed. I was pretty sure she had just said the exact reason why the terrorists had attacked Parsberg. Regardless of whether I and my family had been there that night or not, our parents would've been put on the case which meant the Razgriz would be involved. I needed to tell this to Allison as soon as I got back. She had to know. What the terrorists may've wanted, I had no idea, probably a file of information, but I'd have Allison look into that. She was a genius at that sort of thing.

"I have another question for you," Shiloh said.

"Shoot."

"Are you dating Allison?"

"What gave you that idea?"

"Oh, just the keeping secrets from us, not telling us who she is, going to her room for five hours," she remarked in amusement.

"How did you know about the last one?"

"Percy. Really? There are no secrets in this family. Alec and I were texting and he told me about it. So are you dating her?"

"No, I'm not. Like I said, I'm helping her with a project. The girl is very thorough and that requires a lot of time. Besides, I like someone else."

"Who?!" Shiloh demanded adamantly she made me jump.

"Geez," I laughed.

"That is not an answer."

"You're not getting an answer to it."

"Yes I am. You're going to tell me."

"I am not."

"Yes you are. You know I can get anything out of you if I prod enough."

"Not this time."

"Oh I think I can."

"You're so stubborn."

"You're Jack Bartlett's son. No one is as stubborn as you. Now tell me, does she go to the Osean academy?"

"Yes."

"Do I know her?"

"Yes."

"What year is she?"

"Your year."

"Hmm… well that puts Helena, Lux, and Fiona out of the running."

"You honestly think I like Helena? Helena Geller?" I laughed. "I mean don't get me wrong, she's beautiful, but no, not interested."

"Damn… okay, let me brainstorm a little bit. I'll get it." Shiloh sank down in her seat, biting her lip and staring intently at the dash board. I kept glancing at her every few seconds. It was amusing seeing her so intent on figuring it out. Just as I was about to ask if she really wanted to know who it was, something slammed into the back of my car. My tires hit an ice patch, instantly causing me to lose control of the car. My world was spinning. I tried seeing who it was that hit us while simultaneously attempting to regain control. All I could see was a black hummer but when I caught a glimpse of its grill, my blood went cold. Before I could think anything more of it, my car went off the freeway, rolling over and over down a hill. I blacked out before it stopped.

* * *

><p><strong>Alec<strong>

I'd just fallen asleep at one in the morning when my phone buzzed. I ignored it. For a few moments it stopped, but then it buzzed again. I ignored it again. It didn't go off a second time. I let myself relax again, falling back asleep until there was loud banging on my door.

"You're getting it," Henry grumbled.

"Why me?" I groaned.

"Because you're oldest," my brother responded.

"Shut up." I got up and answered the door. Jem stood there looking terrified. "Dude what happened?"

"Shiloh and Percy got in an accident. They're at the hospital right now," Jem rushed.

"What?!" I exclaimed.

"We have to go. Will is getting the others."

I hurriedly got dressed. Henry, who had heard everything, did the same. The three of us ran to the front of the building. Isabelle, Charlotte, and Tessa were waiting for us.

"Where's Will?" Jem demanded.

"I'm here. Lux is going to call mom and dad and the Bartletts. She's going to handle everything for tomorrow since we're all going to be missing class. I ordered a cab that will take all seven of us. Lux will meet us there later," Will informed. As if on cue, the cab showed up. We all filed in. The hospital was only five minutes away but because the road conditions were so bad, it took us thirty minutes. We hopped out, running inside. Will reached the front desk first.

"You just had two people come in: Shiloh Davenport and Percy Bartlett. Where are they?" he asked breathlessly.

"Are you family?" the nurse queried, peering at the seven of us.

"Yes ma'am. I'm her brother, so is he." Will nodded towards Jem. "The others are close family friends. We're all at the Air Force Academy. Can you please tell us where they are?"

"They're in the emergency room. It says here that they're both undergoing surgery to have shrapnel removed and to fix broken bones. I'll lead you there. Follow me." The nurse got up and strode towards the elevator. We filed after her. The elevator was a tight fit but we managed. Upon getting to the correct floor, all was silent, strange for an emergency floor. I guess it was a slow night.

The nurse talked to another one quietly for a few seconds before turning to us and announcing, "Your sister and friend are still in surgery. We'll let you know when they get out."

"Thank you ma'am," the seven of us replied at the same time. We waited in the waiting room. Will and Jem were texting Lux to see what was going on. Apparently their parents and the Bartletts were going to take their fighter jets to get over here as soon as possible. Sometimes I forgot our families actually owned the Razgriz jets. A gift from Osea for their work.

Henry and Charlotte were talking quietly. Isabelle and Tessa closed their eyes but I knew they weren't asleep. Will and Jem were pacing up and down the room. I sat with my hands clasped in front of me, praying for a good outcome. We waited for hours before a doctor came in. He explained to us that Shiloh and Percy were in stable condition. They were keeping a careful watch on Shiloh who'd apparently hit her head pretty hard considering the size of the gash located on her hairline. That was stitched up the doctor said. Both of them had stitches all over the place from where glass lacerated their skin. Percy had a broken wrist and had had to have a shard of glass five inches long removed from his arm. Shiloh had a fractured foot. The breaks weren't serious so they wouldn't take too long to heal. Finally, both had whiplash. The more I heard, the more terrified I was of actually seeing my friends. I didn't want to see them injured. I worried for them though. I worried their injuries would prevent them from ever flying again. It'd kill them both. Flying was their passion, their life.

"That's all there is for me but the police would like to speak to you. Direct family preferred," the doctor said.

"Our parents are the Razgriz. We're all family here, blood or not," Jem declared. I was surprised he used the Razgriz card. None of us typically used that unless we wanted to stop someone from acting all high and mighty (because that usually did shut them up) or if we really needed something to go our way. The latter happened only a couple times but this time was definitely one of those times that it was needed.

The doctor nodded. "I'll send them in."

A few seconds later, the police entered. "Hello, I'm Klein and this is my partner Zimmerman. We were the ones who arrived on the scene a few minutes after it happened. The accident was a hit and run according to witnesses. The strange thing is, witnesses also said it looked like the person deliberately tried to hit your friends. I understand you are the children of the Razgriz so can you think of anyone who would want to harm you or get back at your parents?"

"No sir. My parents and Percy's are both flying in right now. They'll be here in a few hours so I can tell them you were asking," Will said.

"We appreciate. We're having guards on this floor just in case someone is for some reason targeting your family," Klein noted. The two policemen left. We sat in silence for a few moment before Isabelle asked, "Why would someone target us?"

"We're the Razgriz legacies. It's always been a possibility that someone who had a grudge against our parents would go after us but I thought it'd be when we were younger, closer to the time it all happened, not when we're all in college. If someone is targeting us, that means they've been biding their time coming up with the perfect plan, which is dangerous. That means they've had a lot of time to make sure all the details are perfect," I commented.

"Let's try not to think about that right now. For now, let's go see-" Jem stopped when we heard shouting in the hallway.

"That's my sister in there!" Lux's voice cried. We all ran outside.

"It's okay, she's our sister. Let her through," Will ordered. The policeman stopped blocking Lux. She ran over to us.

"Have you seen them yet?" she demanded.

"No, not yet. We haven't gotten the approval of the doctor," Charlotte answered.

"Where is he? I'll go find him." Before any of us could stop her, Lux was off in search of the doctor. All we could do was follow. She found him at the desk. She hadn't even started her sentence when he told us, "You can go see them. They're in rooms right next to each other."

"Okay, split up. Jem, Lux, Alec, and I will watch over Shiloh. Henry, Isabelle, Charlotte, and Tessa, watch over Percy. Got it?" Will asked. We nodded. We split into our different groups. Lux entered Shiloh's room first. We crashed into her because she halted dead in her tracks.

"Oh god," she choked out. I peered over head. Shiloh had a gash four inches long next to her hairline stitched up. The rest of her face had small cuts all over from glass. Her leg was in a cast and bruises lined her arms. Lux grabbed onto Will's hand before she headed inside. I hesitantly walked in with them.

"Shiloh?" Jem whispered. She didn't respond. He sighed. "Let's take shifts. Will and I will take the first one. Let's say two hours. Alec, you take the next one with Lux."

"There's no need to do that," Chopper said from the doorway. We all whirled around. Lux exclaimed 'Dad!' before running up and hugging him. Chopper hugged his daughter. Will, Jem, and I followed suit. "How long have y'all been here?"

"About six hours I guess, maybe longer. Although Lux just got here a few hours ago. She took care of us not being at school for today and tomorrow. Lydia, Sophie, Simon, and Liam are getting our homework for us. Where's mom?" Jem asked.

"She's with Percy. Bartlett and Nastasya are still on a plane over here. They'll be here in a few hours. You all go get some sleep. I'll stay in here with Shiloh. I'll come get you if she wakes up," Chopper said. We chose not to argue. Besides, the room was rather small and cramped. I guess Blaze must've told the others the same because in the waiting room. None of us said anything. What was there to say? I settled into a chair and got into a comfortable position. I had a feeling we'd be here for a while.

* * *

><p><strong>Percy<strong>

I forced my eyes open, albeit only to slits. Bright light flooded my vision telling me I was certainly not in my car anymore. I tried to turning my head but it hurt so I abandoned that. Instead, I croaked out, "Hello?"

"Percy? Oh thank god," a girl breathed.

"Shiloh? I-is that… you? Are you okay?" I wheezed out.

"It's not Shi. It's Blaze. She's still sleeping."

"How- how bad is she hurt?" I asked, opening up my eyes some more. Blaze sat next to my bed. She looked exhausted. Suddenly I wondered how long I'd been out. "What happened?"

"You were in a car wreck. Someone hit the back of your car and made you slip on a patch of ice. Your car rolled down a hill on the side of the freeway," she explained. It all came back to me quickly, including what I'd seen on the car that hit us.

"I remember the car. It looked like a black Chevy. It had an Iron Cross on its grill. Just like the people in Parsberg. Blaze what if-"

"Percy, calm down. The Iron Cross you saw was probably just the Chevy symbol."

"I'm so sorry Blaze. I nearly got Shi killed. I tried to protect her, I did."

"And you _did _protect her. Those stitches in your forearm are because you threw your arm in front of Shiloh's chest. A five inch shard of glass embedded itself into your arm. If you hadn't thrown your arm in front of Shiloh's chest, that shard of glass would've embedded itself into her chest, into her heart. You _did_ save her Percy. I'm so grateful for that." Blaze let out a small laugh. "Besides, it's not the first time she's had a near death experience."

"And for some reason she's always with me when it happens," I grumbled. "Maybe I should stay away from her."

"I'm not talking about the Parsberg attack. I'm talking about when she was born."

"She was born in the middle of Emmeria when the Estovakians had it under their control. You, Chopper, Henri, and Geller were are stuck there. You had her in the middle of a war."

"That's… not the entire story. Lux, Jem, and Will know the entire story. It's why they've always been so protective of her. Shiloh knows too. It bugs her that we're all so protective but she gets it. She… does push her limits though."

"So she's like you?" I quipped.

My godmother snorted in amusement. "Yes. That is one of the many traits she got from me. Shiloh is kind of my mini-me. The thing is, well, the first thing is she was born two months premature. Most babies don't survive being born that young. Then I died, literally. The doctors shocked me back to life but that's not important."

"Uh, I think it's probably important to Chopper that you lived."

"I meant that it's not important to the story. It took two months for Shiloh to get out of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The hospital didn't have to supplies it typically did to take care of someone like her. I owe them so much for keeping her alive. The reason I'm telling you this is that there are some things you cannot control Percy. I could not control when Shiloh was born or if she would live or not, just like you could not control that person hitting your car, or the hit causing the car to slip on the ice. Do you understand me? This was not your fault."

I nodded. "Yes."

"Good. I'll go let the others know you're awake. Your parents should be here soon. I think they're in the car already. I'll be back." Blaze left my room. I appreciated the talk. I did feel a little better. But she wasn't totally right. I know what I saw. I know I saw the Iron Cross on the plate. I know that my 'accident' was not an accident. I was the target. I was looking into things that had sent up a red flag to the Gray Men. I'd been so close to telling Shiloh about what I'd discovered, but after tonight, that was out of the question. After tonight, no one could know until I had more than just pictures. I needed to know exactly what the Gray Men had planned before anyone in my family found out. I was not risking their lives like I was willing to risk mine.

* * *

><p><strong>Is Percy making a good or bad idea? Review and let me know!<strong>


	8. Composition Four

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter Quote:  
><strong>"**My family is my strength and my weakness."  
><strong>**~Aishwarya Rai Bachchan**

* * *

><p>Chapter 8: Composition Four<p>

**Lux**

Shiloh didn't wake up until about five in the evening. I'd been starting to wonder if she was in a coma and the doctors didn't know. The first thing out of my sister's mouth was a question about whether Percy was okay. When we told her he would be fine, the second thing she said was that she needed the bathroom. I helped her there and back. Afterwards she fell back asleep for the rest of the night. The second time she woke up, which was about noon, she announced her hunger. Dad went and got her something to eat.

"What exactly happened? I don't remember much of the accident," Shiloh admitted.

Mom spoke up. "According to Percy, someone rear-ended your car and sent you skidding on a patch of ice. You rolled down a hill and got some nasty gashes from glass and whatnot. You also broke your leg. The doctors think it slammed too hard into the dashboard."

"How's Percy? What's the extent of his injuries? Can I see him?"

"He's fine. He has a broken arm, and he had surgery to get glass shrapnel out of his arm, but otherwise he's fine. You can see him later. Right now he's sleeping. Something you should be doing too."

"Mom, I was asleep for almost an entire day. That last thing I need to do is sleep," Shiloh pointed out. However, after a little bit more conversation, my sister followed mom's advice.

"Why don't you three go grab some food? Y'all haven't eaten since this morning," mom suggested.

Will and Jem nodded. "Do you want us to bring you anything?"

"Bring me some tea with cream and sugar when you come back up. Get your dad a hot chocolate. I think he'll need it when he wakes up." Mom glanced over at dad who was sacked out on her shoulder.

The three of us went into the waiting room to grab the others. Alec and Henry had been stretched out across the chairs asleep. Charlotte, Tessa, and Isabelle were chattering away. I could tell they were trying anything to keep themselves awake.

"Hey, you guys want to go to the food court and get a bite to eat?" Will inquired. At the mention of 'food', Alec and Henry both woke up. The former fell out of his chair. The latter hit his head on the arm of the chair.

"How are they doing? Did Shi ever wake up?" Alec asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, she woke up for a bit but fell back asleep a couple minutes ago," I answered. Satisfied with my answer, the others got up and we headed down to the food court. I ordered a sandwich and a coke. I'd barely opened my mouth to take a bite of my meal when someone said, "There they are!"

We all turned around to see a swarm of paparazzi coming straight for us. Thankfully security guards blocked the reporters before they reached us, but that didn't stop them from shouting questions at us.

"What the hell?" Will demanded, standing up.

"Is it true that two of your family members were involved in a deadly car crash?!" A reporter shouted. "Were they the cause of it?"

"Reports say it was Shiloh and Percy. Why were they in the same car? Are they dating?" another one asked.

Will and Jem both snarled. While my I was seething with rage myself, I wasn't going to let my brothers assault the paparazzi, no matter how much I thought they deserved it. Tessa and I took Jem and Will by the arms, leading them back over to where our food was. We grabbed our food and headed back upstairs. Mom and dad were talking but when mom saw us, her face scrunched up in confusion.

"Why aren't you eating down there?" she inquired.

"The paparazzi showed up. They're asking about Shiloh and Percy," I answered.

My parents' faces hardened. They excused themselves and left the room. Will, Jem, and I took their chairs. I brought my sandwich up to my mouth only to be interrupted by someone saying, "How are you three doing?"

My brothers and I looked up to find Uncle Genette and Aunt Nagase standing in the doorway. We jumped up to greet them.

"We're doing okay. Much better now that we know Shi and Perce will be okay. When did you get here?" Jem asked.

"We got in about an hour ago with everyone else. And by everyone, I mean all the parents, godparents, and aunts and uncles. We just passed Blaze and Chopper. They're going to deal with the paps. I think all of us leaving Osea tipped them off," Genette explained.

"How is she?" Nagase inquired, nodding towards Shiloh who was still asleep.

"She's okay, just exhausted," I replied.

"I could imagine. You three probably are too."

"We've gotten a little bit of sleep. I mean at least we have the weekend to kind of catch up on our sleep despite the work we have to catch up on. Poor Alec missed his test so he'll have to make that up sometime next week."

"Yes, he's already talked to his teachers about it. Well we'll let you get back to eating. We're going to go help your parents beat back the paparazzi. We'll see you soon," Genette said. He and Nagase left the room. I settled back down into my chair and was about to bite into my sandwich when my phone rang.

"Really?!" I hissed angrily. Will and Jem stared at me while they munched happily on their sandwiches.

"Hello?" I answered, rather irked.

"Hey, Lux. It's Liam. Are you okay? I was calling to make sure you were okay after what happened to Shiloh and Percy. When you didn't show up to class today, Sophie explained what happened. I'm really sorry."

"Oh, hi Liam. Sorry, I'm running on fumes and I'm trying to eat a sandwich but I keep getting interrupted every time I try to eat it."

He chuckled. "Sorry. I'll let you go. But you're okay? Shiloh and Percy are too?"

"Yeah, they're fine. Might be in the hospital a little while longer but they'll be fine. Thank you for checking on them. And on me. That's nice of you. Most project partners wouldn't call asking about it. I should go before I say something stupid though because when I'm tired and hungry, my mouth has no filter."

"All right, I'll see you soon. Get some rest and go eat!" Liam laughed as he hung up. I hurriedly took a bite of my sandwich before anyone could interrupt me again. Will tried but with one death glare in his direction, he shut up.

"Why'd Liam call you?" Jem questioned.

"He wanted to make sure I was okay after what happened to Shiloh and Percy and also that Shiloh and Percy were okay."

"Are you two friends or something?"

"Yeah. We're also working on a project together so he's probably making sure I'm not slacking off."

"I doubt that's why he called," Will remarked.

"Why who called?" Shiloh mumbled.

"Lux has another boy," Will said.

"Teach me your ways, oh great sister. I want a boyfriend," my sister said.

"I already know who you like. You just won't let me do anything about it."

"Because he doesn't like me back."

"Wait, who do you like?" Will and Jem queried simultaneously.

"Not saying a word," I promised. "Your secret is safe with me Shi."

"Since when do we keep secrets in this family?" Will demanded.

"Since girls keep secrets about who they like."

"Can one of you go get some different clothes for me? This hospital gown is really annoying. Not to mention revealing," Shiloh requested. I offered to get some for her. I made my way down to the nurse's desk of the floor.

"Excuse me? Lux Davenport?" A man inquired, tapping me on the shoulder. I turned around to face him, trying to give him my best 'don't mess with me' look. He was tall, bald, and wore a friendly expression. He seemed nice enough but being a Razgriz legacy, you learned to be careful around strangers. You never knew who your friends were and who your enemies were. "Sorry, you don't know me. My name is Vince 'Hammerhead' Toretto. I'm searching for Jason Banks. We were war buddies. He requested I come see him, said it was important?"

"I don't want to sound rude or anything, but I don't know you, I don't recognize you, and whether I know where Jason Banks is or not, I wouldn't tell you where he is," I said. The nurse briefly interrupted our conversation to give me the clothes for Shiloh.

"I understand. Listen, if you don't believe me, call him. I understand why you're being so cautious when it comes to your family."

"Fine, I will. Let me go give these to my sister first. Stay here." I hurried over to my siblings, quickly explained the situation, and went back to Hammerhead flanked by Will and Jem. I pulled out my phone and dialed my uncle, keeping an eye on Vince. He seemed unfazed by my glaring and unfazed by my brothers' presence. Either he really was who he said he was or he was extremely confident that he could take on all three of us if we attacked. If it was the first, then all was fine. If it was the second, then we were in serious trouble.

"Hey Lux, everything okay?" Cipher asked. I could hear the cacophony of paparazzi in the background, vaguely wondering how everything was going on down there.

"Yeah, listen, I have a question: do you know a Vince 'Hammerhead' Toretto? He's here claiming he knows you and that you called him over for something important," I said as I watched my sister sneak out of her hospital room into Percy's. I nodded in her direction. Will and Jem got the gist. Jem went to keep an eye on her.

"Description?"

"Tall, bald, brown eyes, kind of ripped," I explained. Hammerhead gave me an amused smile. I shrugged at him. He was ripped. Bad guy or not, his muscles were impressive.

"That's him. He's on our side Lux, don't worry. I called him in for help on our investigation. He served with me in the Belkan War. He's not the only one. You remember PJ, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"He'll be helping us out so he'll be around although he's supposed to get in tomorrow. Tell Hammerhead I'll be up soon. We're just-" Cipher halted in his speech before shouting, "GET DOWN!"

The all too familiar sound of gunshots rang over the phone. I yelled for my uncle but all that happened was he hung up.

"What happened?" Will demanded.

"Someone's shooting downstairs!" I said. My brother and I shared a glance before bolting to the stairwell.

"Hey!" Hammerhead shouted. "What are you going to do?! You don't have any weapons!"

"Our parents are down there!" Will fired back.

"What's going on?" Shiloh asked, hobbling out of Percy's room. He stood behind her with Jem. I hastily explained what was going on as I pressed the elevator button.

"You two stay up here," Will ordered Shi and Percy.

"Like hell I am!" Shiloh retorted.

"You have a broken leg! You're not going to be much in a fight! Stay here!" my brother barked. Jem kissed her on the head and followed us into the elevator. We hid away from the entrance so if it opened, we wouldn't be shot immediately.

"Do any of you have a plan?" Hammerhead queried, pulling a gun out of his pocket.

"Make sure our parents are okay," I said. "And kick some ass if the opportunity arises."

The doors opened and I crawled out. There was still gunfire everywhere, but I had no idea where the actual shooters were. I stood behind a column and peered around it to get a bearing on the situation. Hammerhead had made his way over to the cafeteria where the paparazzi were huddled in fear. He was backed up by Cipher, Pixy, Henri, and Geller. I saw my parents, Bartlett, and Major near the entrance, hiding behind a desk for protection. Bullet holes riddled the desk and made me shiver in anger that someone was trying to kill my parents. Genette, Nagase, Cassie, and Grimm were hiding behind some couches, doing the same things my parents were. The shooters were all over the place though, running to and fro to make it difficult for my family to injure or kill them.

Suddenly a man jumped to the side of me. My reflexes instantly kicked him, and I therefore kicked him. My foot connected with his head. The gun that had been in his hand fell out. I picked it up and darted behind a different column. Unfortunately for me, Henri saw me which he proceeded to alert my mom of my presence. That most likely meant my parents would figure out Jem and Will were down here.

"Are you mad?!" Henri hissed. I hadn't even seen him make his way over to my side.

"I heard the gunshots over the phone when I called Cipher. I had to come down to make sure you were all okay," I told my godfather.

"We're fine, we've got this. Go back upstairs and bring your brothers."

"No! You need all the help you can get and I'm not going to wait to find out if one of you was killed!"

Henri placed a hand on my shoulder. "We're not going to be killed. This is our job. Besides, we've gotten pretty good at knocking on death's door and running away without repercussions. Go."

"Ok- duck!" My godfather was too stunned at my outburst to do anything but listen. I fired at the enemy, nailing him in the stomach. Henri turned around to see what, or who, I'd shot.

"Nice shot," he complimented.

"Still going to send me back up?" I asked.

"Yes. I wasn't kidding. Go."

"They're running!" Genette shouted. I looked to see what he meant. One of the shooters was making his way into the hallways of the hospital when something slammed into his gut. He flipped over whatever it was onto his back. Then Percy was on top of the guy, holding him place. Shiloh hopped into view on her crutches.

Suddenly, Alec, Henry, Isabelle, Charlotte, and Tessa were all in view, each armed with a scalpel. I didn't think those would do much in a gun fight but I guess it's better to be prepared than have nothing at all.

"Freeze!" My mom shouted. By now all the enemies were either in the center of the room or dead. Most were the latter. Mom had her gun pointed directly at them. The rest of my family who had guns followed in suit, as did I. Will and Jem, who flanked me, had stolen guns off of some dead guys so they were in the circle too.

"Lower your weapons and get down on the ground," Dad ordered. The men did. As we closed in on them, one rolled over and pulled something out of his pocket. He gave us a malicious smile.

"Bomb! He's a bomb!" Cipher shouted. We ran for cover. I slid around the hallway where the rest of the kids were, barely managing to get behind the wall before the explosion rocked the building. Even though I covered my ears, it sounded like the explosion was right next to me. We sat huddled together, shaking from the experience.

"Is-is everyone okay?" Percy stammered out. I looked up at him to see where he was because his voice seemed so far away, but then I realized I still had my hands covering my ears. He was cradling Shiloh in his arms, his entire body wrapped around hers. Someone, Will, pulled me into a hug. I wasn't much of a hugger, not even with my family, but this time I didn't protest.

"Our parents… we have to… find them," Alec said. He'd been the closest to the door so when I saw him clutching his side, I asked, "Are you hurt?"

He shook his head. "No, some debris grazed me. That's all."

"Can you all stand?" Will queried, pushing himself up from the ground. I stood up with him, using the wall for support because I could barely stand. My legs felt like jelly.

One by one, the rest of them stood up. We slowly shuffled our way over to the doorway and peered into the lobby. It was utter chaos. People were screaming in pain, people were shouting to find others, just to make sure they were alive.

"Shiloh, Percy, stay here. You two are already injured and with everything going on out here, there's a risk you could get hurt even more. Please stay here," Will requested. For once, my sister didn't argue and slid down against the wall to the floor. Percy sat next to her.

* * *

><p><strong>Percy<strong>

"Are you okay?" I whispered. "You didn't get hurt did you?"

"No," she murmured, closing her eyes. "You?"

"No."

The two of us fell silent for an agonizingly long minute before Shiloh said, "Thank you."

"For what?" I asked.

She rolled her head to the side and opened her eyes. "For not holding me back when I wanted to come down here."

"I knew you'd find a way. If I couldn't stop you, at least I could give you back up."

She let out a small laugh as she rested her head on my shoulder. "You're a good guy Percy."

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to me. I gave her a kiss on the head. She looked up at me and asked, "What was that for?"

"I'm just really glad you're not dead. I nearly got you killed in the accident and now this… I don't know what it is about us having near death experiences but I'd really like it to stop."

"Hey, the accident wasn't your fault. You had no control over that," Shiloh consoled. "Don't beat yourself up over that."

"I could've killed you!" I hissed. "I couldn't handle that! I couldn't handle losing my best friend or the gi-" I caught myself before I went any further. I couldn't explain what I felt for Shiloh. For the longest time, I thought the feelings I got when I saw her with other boys, the feelings I got every time she got herself into danger, were simply from her being my best friend and the youngest in our group. I thought it was because I felt she needed to be protected. It was only when I entered the Air Force and moved away from her that it finally dawned on me that I wasn't protective for Shiloh because of the reasons I thought I was, but because I was in love with her. When I had broken my leg and couldn't do anything at recess in elementary, she was the one who stayed with me. Whenever I was sick and couldn't get work from school, she would be the one to bring it to me. When I got my wisdom teeth out, she was the one who brought me food I could actually eat and _enjoy _eating (you can only eat so much soup before you get sick of it). I mean Shiloh had been with me through everything, good and bad, so saying 'I love you' didn't really seem to cover what I felt, but it was all that could come to mind right now.

So I told her.

"I love you too. You're my best friend. Always have been," she replied.

"No, I don't mean it in a friendly context right now. I mean it in a context that would give your brothers permission to kill me if I ever hurt you in any way, shape, or form again. Do you understand what I'm saying? That's why I couldn't handle losing you."

"I'm not going anywhere, anytime soon. I promise," she said. Then she kissed me. It was brief, but wonderful, and would've lasted longer had Lux not interrupted.

"Seriously? It takes a damn explosion for you two to confess your undying love for each other? Jesus, I wonder what event would make you two to actually get engaged!" Lux said. Shiloh and I both flushed deeply as we stood up.

Studiously avoiding answering her comments, I asked, "Is everyone okay?"

"Our family is all alright although most were injured. Nothing too severe. Some reporters and staff members are dead though. We don't know how many yet."

"Then let's go see what we can do to help," Shiloh said.

The three of us entered the lobby. Blaze and Major came running over to us.

"Are you two okay?" They demanded.

"We're fine. Just shaken up. Are you? Where's dad? And Bartlett?"

"Your dad and Bartlett are being taken care of by some EMTs. Chopper was hit in the head by a flying brick. Other than a concussion, he seems to be fine but they're double-checking. Bartlett is worse off- he has a second degree on his arm.

"Go," Shiloh said. Kissing her on the head, I rushed over to my dad who was giving the EMTs hell.

"I'm fine!" he declared gruffly. "There are people with worse injuries than me. Go help them!"

"Sir, everyone else has been or is being taken care of. Now please let us look at your arm more fully," an EMT said calmly.

"Dad, listen to them, please," I begged.

"Percy, what the hell are you doing down here? You're supposed to be upstairs."

"I couldn't really sit around and do nothing while I knew what was going on down here. I'm fine."

"You and the others shouldn't be getting involved. Whatever is going on doesn't involve you and you need to stop getting involved. This is our job, our problem. Your job is to finish your education."

"I would say it is our problem considering we've all been at the sight of two major terrorist attacks in the past month!" I argued. "I don't want to sit on the sidelines wondering when I'm going to be attacked next. I want to find these bastards just as bad as you do, maybe more."

"No, stay out of this. That's an order." Resisting the urge to roll my eyes at my dad, I stalked away from my parents. I avoided looking at all the burn victims passing me. Many of them had third and fourth degree burns. The sight didn't compare to the smell though. People in movies and books are always saying that something smelled 'like death', and up until now, I couldn't understand how something could smell 'like death'. I did now. It was indescribable. If I didn't get out of the lobby soon, I was going to be sick. I went outside, attempting to stay away from the crowds as I pulled out my cell phone. I had multiple messages from friends asking if I was all right. I ignored all but one, calling them.

"Oh my god Percy, are you okay?!" Allison demanded.

"Yeah, bruised, shaken, a little broken, but I'm okay. How far along are you in the research?"

"As in what did I find out about what they stole from your parents?"

"Unless you found out something more important, yes."

"No, but what they found, it's not that they took it, they copied it. See, your parents have all press conferences and trips and vacations planned to a tee. I was able to see which files were accessed the night of the Parsberg attack. Mostly it was your parents. I was able to track down their computer IP addresses so I know it was them. There were time stamps too, and there was only one that corresponded with the time of the attack, not to mention it was nowhere else on any other files. The Gray Men, which I'm assuming is who's doing this, went after your parents' schedule. They will know exactly when and where your parents will be for the year. They're targeting your parents, not you that I know of. But somehow you and the other kids seem to be at the scene of the attack most of the time."

"Then how did they know that my parents were going to be at the hospital? Could they have maybe put a bug on my parents' schedule that would allow them to see any changes?"

"It's possible. But it's also possible that the reason they knew your parents were at the hospital is because your car crash is all over the media. The news channels are reporting on the reason of the crash and your well-being. The gossip news places, they're more interested why you and Shiloh were in a car together at night. How is she doing by the way?"

"She's okay. She's with her parents right now. She got a broken leg and a gash on the side of her that needed to be stitched up, but otherwise Shi's okay. On another note, I have an idea and I need your help."

"That's what I'm here for Percy."

"I pinned a guy down earlier before the bomb went off and he was wearing an Iron Cross necklace. It got me thinking: can you access the files on the Gray Men that my parents have?"

"I'd have to do it from the main computer or computers they're located on. The security on those files are one of the highest. Your parents' schedule wasn't all that difficult to access, but then again, who would think that someone would want a schedule?"

"There's a party at Versailles in a couple weeks to celebrate Osea's independence. I could bring you as my date and that would give you a cover."

"That could work actually. Is there any way you can figure out your parents' password for their computers? It'd make it go faster."

"I can try. But their desks are closest to the door. When you enter, my dad's is on the left, my mom's is on the right. Either one of their computers would work. I'll get you an invitation, get you all the necessary information for it. I'll also tell Shiloh so she won't question why I'm bringing you."

"You're going to tell her what we're doing? I thought you didn't want them finding out about any of this?"

"No, I don't. I meant I was going to tell her you're my date as a friend because I'm not entirely sure where we stand relationship-wise right now, but it's different than before the crash. We're not dating, but we're not necessarily just friends either. I don't want her brothers suspecting anything is going on between us. They'd kill me if they found out she and I were dating. It's best to tell them when I've been shipped off to a base."

"And if they're shipped to the same base as well?"

"Then I might need to look into the Witness Protection Program."

Allison laughed. "All right, listen, I have to go, but keep me updated and I'll keep you updated if I find out anything else. Stay safe if that's at all possible for you."

It was my turn to laugh. "I think you and I both know the answer to that. Talk to you soon."

Hanging up, I twirled my phone in my hand, trying to calm my racing heart. Was I really going to break into my parents' files? Was I really going to commit what was pretty much treason? Was I willing to risk my military career and my life in general to find out what the Gray Men were doing so I could protect my family?

Absolutely.

"Hey you," Shiloh said, hopping over to me on her crutches. "Parents are calling us all back in. We're heading back to Osea in a couple days. They think it's best if we stay as close as we can to them." She paused before asking, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Just thinking. Listen, about earlier, I'm sorry if I kind of thrust all of that on you."

Shiloh smiled. "Don't worry, Perce. It's nice not to have to guess whether it's a good idea to tell you I like you as more than just a friend or not."

"Why did you never tell me before?"

"I didn't want to make things awkward between us if the feelings weren't reciprocated."

"Well now that you know that they are, would you want to maybe… give us a try?"

"I would, but we maybe we should keep it on the lowdown just to see how it's going to work? I don't want to tell everyone we're dating and then find out it's not working out, you know what I mean?"

"I think that's a good idea. Although we should probably tell Lux not to saying anything," I said, standing up.

"Already taken care of," she said with a smile. "Listen, we really do need to head back in. Our parents want to see us."

I gave Shiloh a kiss before wrapping my arm around her shoulders and walking back inside. Our family was gathered around in a room away from the commotion. My dad wasn't there but I was told by mom that his arm was still being taken care of. I glanced around the room, taking in the injuries of everyone. The kids were all unhurt, just dirt and grime covering their faces. Chopper had an icepack to the back of his head. Pixy and Cipher both had cuts and scrapes on their faces but nothing severe. Mom had a cut on her cheek. Henri had his arm wrapped up but for what reason I wasn't able to tell. Geller clutched his ribs, wincing whenever he moved, leading me to believe he'd broken, or at least cracked, some ribs. Genette, Nagase, Cassie, and Grimm, along with some bald guy I didn't recognize, seemed to have small first degree burns. Nothing serious, just painful. Blaze was in different clothes and it was only when she turned around that I figured out why. Her back was bandaged up but blood was already seeping through. Bile rose in my throat, not wanting to think how anyone in this room could've died today. If my parents or family were anywhere near figuring out what the Gray Men were doing, this might not have happened. I had to take this into my own hands because if I told them what I knew, they'd take all my information and then stop me from helping. I didn't want that to happen. If I told any of the other kids what I was doing, they'd want to help, and that would put them in danger. I couldn't let that happen. For better or for worse, Allison and I were on our own with this.

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><p><strong>Sorry I took so long to update! Please forgive me! For those of you following me on tumblr, if you haven't seen them already, I have trailers up for this story with some badass songs so check them out!<strong>


	9. Crackerjack

**Finally the story is picking up. Enjoy the next chapter :)**

**Chapter Quote:  
><strong>"**I'm sort of fascinated by the whole espionage crime thing."  
><strong>**~Aaron Eckhart**

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><p>Chapter 9: Crackerjack<p>

We all went to Osea a week later. Our parents flew their jets back home alongside our transport plane. We had our own personal fighter jet escorts. I didn't think anything would happen flying back home, and I was right, but it was nice having that security. Also it was extremely cool seeing my parents fly beside us.

We all pretty much slept the entire way home, exhausted from the week. At least our time in at the Belkan Air Force Academy had actually been up so our friends got to join us on the ride home. The only problem was that my only ally in this terrible situation was back at the Belkan academy. How Allison and I were going to find out what was going on when we were in two different countries, I didn't know, but I'd already told Shiloh that I was bringing Allison as my date for the Osean Independence party at Versailles, telling her it was to throw off any suspicion her brothers might have about her and I dating. She surprisingly agreed it was a good idea and was genuinely excited to finally meet Allison. I desperately wanted to tell Shiloh about what was really going on, but for her own safety, I knew that couldn't happen.

Currently the other boys and I were waiting in one of the living rooms at Versailles for the independence party to start. I'd misjudged the day it was actually occurring and had to tell Allison it was actually in a couple months rather than a couple weeks. She could still come but she gave me endless teasing about getting a couple weeks and a couple months mixed up.

Will and Jem were arguing over whether the Hawks or Cougars were going to win the basketball championship. Alec, Henry, and I were chatting about work. Alec and I had a lot to stress about because we were graduating soon and we were pointing that out to Henry who was stressing way too much about his exams.

The girls still weren't there. They were getting ready. I never understood why it took girls so long to get ready. I'd even asked Shiloh at some point to which she explained they had to shower, shave, dry their hair, style their hair, do the makeup (there's so much involved- don't get me started), paint their nails (fingers and toes), put their dresses on (because apparently some dresses are difficult I learned), and shoes. Knowing Lux and Shiloh, they'd take after their mom with the heels and put on the tallest ones they could find which meant they'd be tall. Very tall. Isabelle, Charlotte, and Tessa wore high heels too, but not quite to the degree the Davenport girls did.

"Hey guys!" Shiloh greeted, opening the door. "Sorry we're late."

The other girls followed behind them. I'd been right about Lux and Shiloh wearing heels that could kill.

"Lux, isn't that a little short for an Independence Party?" Will raised his eyebrows at her white, sequined dress. Lux flipped him off. He laughed. "Love you sis."

"Feelings not mutual. So when does this party actually start? And where the hell are our dates? Can't they come in earlier?" Lux ranted

"Everything okay?" I asked.

"She's just in a bad mood," Shiloh said.

"Thank you for that Captain Obvious," Lux remarked.

"Calm your engines," Shiloh snapped airily as she came to sit next to me. Just as she sat down, someone knocked on the door. I shouted at them to come in. It was one of the ushers (is that the right term?). He announced that our friends were here. Sophie came bursting through the doors and threw her arms around Will. Lydia shuffled her way over to Alec. Simon greeted Isabelle with a quick kiss. Like his girlfriend, he was rather shy at showing affection in public. Then there was Liam who gave Lux a hug.

"Something you want to tell us sis?" Jem queried, squinting his eyes suspiciously at Liam.

"He came as a friend. I was not going to this thing single like Shiloh," Lux retorted.

"Careful Liam, blonde's in a mood," Will warned. Lux slapped him upside the head.

"I'm not going single," Shiloh pointed out.

"What?" Will, Jem, Lux, and I chorused. I received some weird looks from her brothers and a knowing look from Lux but I ignored all of them.

"Who is it?" Jem demanded.

"Axel. It was a last minute thing. Mom invited him and Markus so they're coming with Allison. They should be here soon."

"Were you planning on telling us this before or after they showed up?" I questioned gruffly.

"Do you seriously still not like him?"

"I don't trust him. There's a difference."

"Really? Because you're acting like a jealous boyfriend whenever he's mentioned," she laughed. "Listen, they should be here soon. Since they're coming with your date, what do you say the two of us go down and greet them?"

"Fine," I said, standing up. "We'll be back."

Shiloh and I left the room. The moment we had turned around the corner, Shiloh stopped me and pulled me into a kiss.

"That was to remind you that Axel is of no threat to you," she said after breaking the kiss and walking again.

"I don't really appreciate finding out last minute," I muttered.

"I wasn't joking about it being last minute. I only found out a few minutes ago when mom texted me before she went to talk to President Duncan. I was about to tell you when Lux decided to announce I was going single. I'm sorry. But be more careful next time? Lux is still the only one that knows we're together and Will and Jem aren't stupid. They know that tone you were using wasn't because you don't trust Axel. You sounded like a jealous boyfriend."

"Because maybe I am."

"You don't have reason to be."

I sighed. "I know. Doesn't change that I don't trust him."

"In general or around me?"

"I don't trust him around you although I know very well you can handle him."

"He won't be hitting on me tonight. He knows we're dating. I told him after I found out he was coming."

"You won't tell your family but you'll tell him?!"

"He won't kill you for dating me like my brothers possibly might. Besides, we're keeping this a secret because we don't know if it really will work between us. Relax Percy. Besides, it was a way of preventing him from hitting on me tonight. He knows this is a purely platonic date."

"There's nothing platonic about the way he looks at you." My girlfriend rolled her eyes. This was going to be a fun night…

"Percy!" Allison exclaimed, breaking my trail of annoyed thoughts. I smiled at her as she came up to hug me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Shiloh hugging Axel and Markus. The former pulled away from my girlfriend and gave me a friendly smile.

"Hey Percy, how are you?" he asked, giving me his hand to shake.

I shook it but not willingly. "Good. Yourself?"

"Pretty good. Excited to be here. So where's everyone else?"

"They're in the living room. We've been hanging out in there until the party starts, which is actually in a few minutes so what do you say we go grab the others and head into the ballroom?" Shiloh said.

The five us headed back up to the living room. Axel stood next to Shiloh. Markus stood on the other side of Allison. I was in the middle. I was blocking out the conversations because my mind was on all the research I needed to do for a paper and also on the Gray Men because my mind was never far from that subject.

"Perce, you okay?" Allison snapped her fingers in front of my face.

"What?" I said, looking down at her.

"I was asking you a question and you weren't responding."

"Oh. Sorry. What was the question? And where did everyone go?"

"They went inside the living room. I wanted to talk to you privately for a moment. We can let the others think we're dating. Shiloh, Axel, and Markus know better though so we can't be long. My first question is did you figure out the password to your dad's computer?"

"Yeah, it's Kubinka1151995."

"How on earth did you figure that out?"

"I just figured out when and where my dad met my mom. Also I might've set up a camera in the room and filmed my dad typing in his password. Okay, what's your second question?"

"Are you sure Shiloh's okay with me being your date for tonight?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You two seem like you're arguing."

"We are. I don't trust _her_ date."

"Axel? Why not? He's a good guy."

"I'll explain when we're getting the files on the Gray Men. Come on, let's go to the party." I offered my arm for her to take. I led her to the main ballroom which was decorated with Osean flags and colors. My family was in the center of the room talking with each other and a few other diplomats.

"There you are!" my father exclaimed as I approached. He looked Allison up and down critically. "Percy, are you going to introduce you to your date?"

"Everyone, this is Allison Bells. Allison, this is… everybody," I introduced, feeling slightly embarrassed. It was always nerve-wracking bringing someone into our inner circle. I mean my family was always nice, but we were a tight knit group that didn't trust many. We were always friendly, we were always polite, but outside of each other, we didn't trust most.

"Hello everyone," Allison greeted with a smile.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Major said, offering her hand to shake. My date did. My dad shook her hand as well.

"Percy's told me so much about all of you. It's a pleasure to meet you and an honor to be here."

"How do you two know each other?" Blaze asked sweetly. My godmother was always genuinely nice to people she met, but she was also very inquisitive and I knew she was trying to figure out my relationship with Allison. Knowing her, she might actually figure out my plan…

"I'm at the Belkan Air Force Academy in my last year. Percy has been helping me a lot for my dissertation."

"Your family was okay with you flying down here by yourself?" Chopper inquired, appearing genuinely concerned for my friend.

"I'm putting myself through college. My family isn't speaking to me right now. Different values, different views…" Allison admitted, suddenly becoming shy.

My godmother gave her sympathetic smile. "Then welcome to our family. The adults and I have to go greet some guests but I look forward to talking to you again."

"I'd hardly consider Bartlett an 'adult'," Chopper remarked. "He's more like an overgrown baby that can talk."

"Boy, I will hit you so far you'll land in Yuktobania," dad growled.

"If you're going to hit me, you should aim for Sotoa. It's farther." My godfather said more but I didn't hear it because he'd walked away with the rest of my family. I did see Chopper and dad start punching each other playfully in the arm though.

"They were joking, right?" Allison questioned hesitantly.

"Oh no, they weren't joking. Bartlett never jokes," Lux answered.

"My sister's kidding. Dad and Bartlett get along great, they just banter with each other more than the others. It's a pleasure to meet you though. Percy's told great things about you!" Shiloh exclaimed.

"Hopefully all good things," Allison laughed.

"I haven't found any bad traits to talk about," I said.

"What are you studying?" Axel queried.

"Network Intelligence. I mostly search for threats online but I've gotten quite good at hacking into things. Not that I do it on a regular basis though. I'm mostly hacking into my own accounts because I keep forgetting my passwords for things."

"I might need you to hack into my Instagram. Completely forgot my password," Charlotte said.

"Oh dear, how will you survive without posting a picture to Instagram?" Tessa remarked sarcastically.

"It's very important!" Charlotte argued. "How else am I going to post my fabulous pictures of epic planes and my beautiful family?"

"Literally the only things you post are pictures of you and Jem and planes. I'm nowhere on your Instagram."

"Okay, before we scare Allison off, let's go eat some food. We get cranky when we're hungry," I interrupted. The Grimm sisters glared at each other but complied with my wish. We all took over a table, splitting into two groups because there were so many of us. I sat with Shiloh, Axel, Will, Jem, Sophie, and Tessa. There was an empty seat at our table although I doubted any diplomat would take because I'm pretty sure a table full of college students is intimidating for anyone, whether you know the people or not.

We chatted while snacking on food. Everyone's moods improved dramatically after eating, telling me I'd been right about them being cranky when they're hungry. About an hour into the party when most of the guests had arrived, I asked Allison for a dance on the floor. Shiloh told us to have fun. She remained at the table talking to the rest of the group until the others decided they wanted to go dance too.

I had to admit the party was fun, almost to the point where I almost forgot about my actual mission.

Almost…

After having three dances with Allison, two with Shiloh, and another with Allison, the two of us made our escape. We passed a few security guards and whenever they gave us questioning looks, Allison and I would get all cozy with each other. All the guards thereafter assumed we were going somewhere to make-out (or more). We reached the Razgriz office with no problems. Slipping into the office, Allison went directly to my dad's computer. I locked the door behind us. Thankfully my dad's computer was already on so we could just log off when we were done.

"Kubinka1151995, right?" She asked. I confirmed it, turning on a lamp so we could see. I directed Allison to the folder that it would most likely be in. I wished I'd figured out my mom or godmother's password because my dad had no sense of organisation which meant that searching for the files we needed was going to be hellacious. They all had random names like 'Operation Huckbein', 'Operation Motormouth', 'Operation Kid', 'Operation Kirk', and 'Operation Thirteen'.

"Um, which one do I choose?" Allison asked.

"Try Operation… Motormouth?" I suggested, honestly just taking a guess about what to click. I had a feeling it wouldn't be the right folder, and I was right, but that didn't stop me from reading it.

"God, I can't believe what Mr. Davenport went through," Allison said softly.

"I didn't even know he went through that. I know he was shot down and thought to be dead, and I know he lost his memory for a bit, and that he was taken by Belkans, but I had no idea he was with them for six months, and being tortured as well," I admitted. "I wonder if the Davenport kids know… go back. Click on Operation Kid." Allison did what I said. That file contained information about Blaze, Geller, and Henri being in Emmeria and everything that happened while they were there and what happened when they were gone along with them kicking ass in a massive battle becayse apparently, in my dad's words, they were "scaring the shit out of the enemy because some badass Belkan planes registered as Osean but the pilots were speaking Yuktobanian".

"Wait a second, in an interview with your parents, I remember something about Blaze being called 'Kid' by your dad. What if the name of each operation has to do with the topic of who it was about?"

"Then I say we should be looking for something called Operation Asshole because that's what dad always called the Gray Men."

"There's no file called Operation Asshole."

"Um, what about Assbutt?"

"Percy, be serious."

"Okay… try looking for Ofnir, Grabacr…"

"It won't be that obvious."

"Then I guess we better get scrolling." Allison scrolled through the files. There was Operation Ghosts which was when my dad helped Yuke students steal a nuclear bomb to dismantle it while the Razgriz provided cover. There was Operation Nutmeg which for some reason, dad thought a Christmas party deserved to be in the file. Operation Badass was pretty much all about my dad breaking Prime Minister Nikanor out.

"Operation General Morons. Could that be it?" Allison mused aloud, clicking on the file. Sure enough that was the document. All seven hundred pages. "This was edited recently. I think your parents think that the terrorist attacks have been by the Gray Men. Let me copy this onto a flash drive and then we'll get out of here."

"What have they found out? Can you look while it's transferring?"

"Yeah." Allison scrolled down. "Looks like you were right about that Iron Cross. They've been looking into it too. They even have names of some people. When I get back to Belka, I'll look into the names for you. You read everything they have, see if you can find something out."

"Look into more files. A lot of the stuff they have is linked with each other. I don't want to miss out on any critical information."

"Percy, this is confidential information. If they find out that you have it, you could be called out for treason."

"If they find out, I'll tell them what I was doing. But I need to know. What's Operation Thorn?"

"It looks like it's all about this guy named Hamilton. Allen Hamilton. Do you know the name?"

"He was part of the Gray Men but Blaze fired at a plane in the tunnel in Sudentor. The plane ricocheted off the walls and hit Hamilton, killing him. Copy that file too. He had something to do with the Gray Men so maybe there's something in his file too. The file called Operation Motormouth, copy it."

"I don't see how that's-"

"There's names of ex-Gray Men. I want to know who they were. I'll skip past the parts about Chopper. I don't want to read about that… I don't want to read about my godfather getting tortured." I had a whole new respect for my godfather. I knew he'd been through some sort of hell and back but to the degree that the report went into, I honestly wondered how he could still laugh and smile and love life. It made me wonder how he'd survived six months of that hell.

"Fine. One more thing: why don't you trust Axel?"

"Because it seems like the moment Shiloh started talking to him, we started getting attacked. She met him only a little while before we were attacked in Parsberg and then it seemed after that, we were being targeted constantly. I don't believe in coincidences when my girlfriend is friends with the guy that tried to kill my parents multiple times along with the rest of my family and now the Gray Men are trying to kill us again. That can't be a coincidence."

"Okay, it's all downloaded, we need to-" Allison stopped midsentence when the doorknob jiggled.

"Oh shit," I breathed. Allison stood up and pushed me down in the chair before sitting on my lap. "What are you-"

"Shut up. I don't root for your team remember? Just go along with it," she hissed. Unclipping her hair, she dipped her head into the crook of my neck just as the door opened. Someone cleared their throat. Allison popped up to look over the back of the chair at the intruder, blushing furiously.

"What's going on here?" Henri asked. I let some relief wash through me. Henri would be easy to persuade we weren't doing anything we shouldn't be although I still felt guilty.

Allison smiled bashfully. "Percy was showing me around the palace and um, we uh… started doing other… stuff."

"Percy, why were you showing her in here? It's off limits to everyone but our family. You know that."

I spun the chair around. "Sorry, Henri… I just know Allison is a huge fan of the Razgriz and I was at least going to show her where you all work and then it took a different turn."

"I can see that. You better be glad I found you and not your dad. He's looking for you too. We realized you weren't in the room and went searching for you. Come on, your secret's safe with me but don't do it again."

"Thanks Henri. Could you possibly not mention what Allison and I were doing? Just that I was showing her around? Please? My dad would kill me if he found out I left the party to make out with a random girl."

Henri nodded. Allison and I darted out of the room, mumbling embarrassed thank you's as we walked past him. Henri walked behind us and it was only after we entered the ballroom again that Allison handed me the flash drive.

"You're the best," I said.

"The best I might be, but you are not. Henri is telling your dad who is standing right next to Shiloh who is obviously eavesdropping on everything."

"Oh no," I groaned. "I'll be back. I need to go do damage control."

I finagled my way over to Shiloh only to be stopped by my dad who asked, "Are you dating that girl?"

"No, we're not dating," I said firmly.

"Good, then you might want to let your actual girlfriend know that. I don't think she believed Henri when he said you were just showing Allison around."

"What?" I stared at him with wide eyes.

"Son, I'm your father, I-"

"I know you're my father."

"Watch the snark and stop avoiding the topic. I know you're dating Shiloh. Blaze found out and I'll never figure out how, but she in turn told me and your mom. Now go make sure your girlfriend is okay."

Clapping me on my back, my dad left me dumbfounded in my spot until Lux grabbed onto my tie and dragged me outside the ballroom.

"What did you do?" She demanded.

"Nothing!"

"Then why is my baby sister on the verge of tears?" Lux growled.

"Because she misinterpreted me showing Allison around as me cheating on her. I was going to go tell her but then my dad accosted me, announced he knows I'm dating Shi along with your parents, and as I was about to go to her again, you accosted me. If you want me to fix this, then let me go see her."

"If you don't fix this, I'm telling my brothers and you're dead." Lux stalked off. Taking a deep breath, I started heading back into the ballroom. I scanned the room for my girlfriend but she was nowhere to be found.

"If you're looking for Shiloh, I don't think she wants to talk to you," Axel remarked, walking up to me with a glass of champagne.

I could barely hide my distaste at the sight of him as I asked, "She already tell you what happened?"

"No, I was with her when she overheard Henri telling your dad. It wasn't hard to figure out what she was thinking. I did try to convince her you and Allison weren't doing anything bad."

"And?"

"She didn't believe me."

"Of course she didn't. I need to go find her. If you find her, tell her I need to talk to her."

"I'll tell her. Can't promise she'll listen. Good luck." I maneuvered my way back through the crowd in search of Shiloh. She was nowhere to be found. Sighing, I went to a table and sat down. Alec came over and chatted to me and while I was glad to have a conversation to make sitting at the table less awkward, I also couldn't stop thinking about where Shiloh was.

* * *

><p><strong>Allison<strong>

The moment I saw Shiloh leave the ballroom, I followed her. I could tell by her face that she was near tears. I made an excuse that I needed the bathroom to the security guards because I figured that was where she was going. Isn't that where all girls go when something goes wrong at a party?

Sure enough, she was in the bathroom. We were the only ones in there. She was washing her hands in the sink but her eyes were rimmed with unfallen tears. When Shiloh saw me, she smiled, but I could tell it was forced.

"Can we talk?" I asked.

"About what? You sneaking off with my boyfriend to make out?"

"We weren't making out."

"Then why else would Percy 'show you around' the building?" she replied, drying her hands.

"Because he was showing me places he wasn't supposed to. We were found in your parents' office. You have no idea how much I idolize the Razgriz. Percy thought I'd enjoy at least seeing the place that they do all their work. That's when Henri caught us. Percy would never do that to you Shiloh. I know that for a fact."

"Really? Because it seems like he's been hiding a lot from all of us recently so it makes me wonder if he's been hiding stuff about you too."

"The only stuff he's been hiding about me is my love life. He really has been helping me with work. I don't have any friends back on base. Percy is my only friend and I was hoping after today, that you might be too. Besides, I would never kiss Percy, and not just because he's your boyfriend. I wouldn't kiss him because I don't root for his team."

Shiloh blinked at me in confusion before I saw the realization hit her. "Oh!"

"Yeah, I don't like boys. Not in that way at least. I know you're probably still a little bit mad at him and me for not telling you that we were going to go tour the place, and I don't care if you forgive me, but at least forgive him."

"I forgive you. Both of you." Shiloh took her hand in mine. "Let's get back to the party. I'll introduce you to a few people."

We did just that. Shiloh introduced me to quite a few diplomats. I was glad all those conversations were short because they all seemed too full of themselves. When I voiced this to Shiloh later, she snorted and said, "That's because they are. Downside of being a kid of the Razgriz- we actually have to put up with them. Thankfully it's not often. They drive my parents nuts. Funny thing is that all the diplomats are scared of our family because of our legacy. Some of them may not like us, but they can't show it."

"Have your parents ever thought about running?"

"They've thought about it but they like their job now. They can work on their own time really, get to avoid most of the politics associated with working with the president."

"Are you going to follow in their footsteps?"

"I want to make a name for myself in the military first, then, if I'm able, I'd love to do what my mom does."

"Where do you want to be stationed?"

"I know relations with Aurelia are tense right now so I'd like to be placed near those borders. I doubt anything will come to a head with them that will require fighter jets but if it does for some reason, I want to be the first line of defense. Belka wouldn't be bad either since I can speak the language but I want to experience a new place I guess. What about you? Where do you want to be stationed?"

"Anywhere but Belka. Too many problems with my family. I want to go somewhere else and start with a clean slate, you know?"

"Well you're always welcome to come talk to us if you need help with anything. My mom doesn't say welcome to the family to many so she meant it when she told you welcome to ours."

"What did I say?" Mrs. Davenport asked, walking up and placing her hands on her daughter's shoulders.

"I was just telling Allison that you meant it when you said welcome to our family," Shiloh responded. "You okay mom?"

"I'm fine. Just searching for your brothers. How are you two doing?"

"We're good. Just talking. Why are you searching for Will and Jem?"

"Just trying to make sure they stay out of trouble. So tell me, is there any particular reason why Percy looks really down? You two didn't break up did you?"

"He and Allison weren't dating," Shiloh answered.

"I wasn't taking about him and Allison. I was talking about you and him."

Shiloh paled. "You knew?"

"Honey, I dated and married my brother's best friend. I know the signs of a secret crush. You're definitely my daughter," Blaze laughed. "Don't worry, only me, your father, Barlett and Major know. Oh, and Lux. We'll let you announce it to the others."

"In answer to your question Mrs. Davenport, Percy knew how big of a fan I was of the Razgriz and he thought I'd like a tour of the palace. We were caught in your office and Shiloh overheard and misinterpreted it. Not only do I not like Percy in that way, but I don't like boys."

"Is that why your family-" Blaze trailed off, not finishing the question but I knew what she was implying.

"Yes ma'am."

"You have a new family in us then. If you ever need anything, you let me know. I'll give you my number at the end of the night, okay? And please, call me Blaze. Now if you'll excuse me, I just saw your brothers go into the kitchen and I don't trust why they're going in there. I'll see you two later."

Blaze disappeared. I glanced over at Percy who was talking to Alec and Henry. He was putting on a brave face but I could tell it was fake.

"I should probably go see him," Shiloh mused.

"I'll stay here."

"Oh no, you come with. You're his date after all." Giving me a wink, she took my hand and led me over to the boys.

"Shiloh! There you are! Did you steal Percy's date from him?" Alec asked.

"Yes. She's great company!" Shiloh defended. "How are you three doing? Where's Lydia and Charlotte?"

"Good. They're talking with Sophie and Tessa. Where's your date?"

"I think he's talking to Helena."

"Ha, people think mom and dad are scary. Geller is terrifying."

"I think that comes with being a Belkan."

"Allison is Belkan and she doesn't look terrifying. No offense," Alex added quickly.

"None taken," I laughed. "Terrifying in person I am not, but get me to hack something, and there's no one better."

"Cyber attacker? We don't have one of those in our family I don't think. At least not of the kids. We could use one," Henry remarked.

"What exactly do we have to hack into?" Shiloh queried in amusement. Percy shifted in his seat.

"I'm just saying, if we ever needed someone to, we could have her."

"Alec! They're playing our song!" Lydia exclaimed, rushing over. "We need to dance!"

In the flash of an eye, Alec was gone. Henry snorted before saying, "I should go find Charlotte. She and the other girls look like they've been trapped by a diplomat."

That left me, Percy, and Shiloh awkwardly standing. I broke the silence by telling them, "Why don't you two go dance? Talk some stuff out?"

"We are not leaving you by yourself," Shiloh replied firmly.

"I'll go talk to Markus. It looks like he's third-wheeling with Helena and Axel."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Go talk!" Percy stood up and took Shiloh's hand, leading her to the dance floor. They stood apart from the main dancing group. I could see relief instantly wash over Percy's face barely ten seconds into the conversation. I smiled, happy that they were getting things straightened out. I made my way over to Markus only to be stopped by Major. The woman, I can honestly say, frightened the living daylights out of me.

"Hello Mrs. Bartlett," I greeted.

"Hello Allison. How are you?"

"I'm good. You?"

"Good. Why aren't you with my son? You came as dates."

"He's with Shiloh right now. I came purely as a friend. Also it throws off the others' suspicions about Shi and Percy dating because they don't quite wanting the others knowing. I was going to talk to Markus because it looks like he's become a wingman in a different sense."

Major laughed. "Axel has his hands full if he's thinking of dating Helena. Not only is she a pistol, she has an overprotective dad that actually puts my husband to shame."

"Are you enjoying the party?"

"I am. Are you?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Major, are you interrogating poor Allison?" Chopper inquired, popping up out of nowhere. Blaze was next to him but she kept looking over her shoulder at the twins to keep an eye on them.

"What's going on?" Genette walked up next to his sister. The resemblance between them was startling. I mean of course they should look alike because they're siblings, but you know those siblings that look _nothing _like each other? These two could pass as twins.

"I just wanted to get to get to know Allison. My son doesn't bring any girls to anything so she is obviously special to him."

"Honey where are you staying tonight?" Blaze asked.

"I'm staying in a brothel," I answered. Genette and Chopper, both of whom had been taking a sip of their champagne, started choking. I stared at them in confusion. "What?"

"Boys stop! You're embarrassing her," Major chided. The two men quickly regained their composure but I could tell they were trying not to laugh.

"Did you mean a hostel?" Blaze asked, glaring at her husband and brother.

"I'm not sure."

"A hostel is an _herberge_. You said _bordell._"

"Oh my god! Hostel! I meant hostel! Not brothel! Oh god that's embarrassing." I covered my face with my hands in embarrassment.

"Don't worry. There's nothing to be embarrassed about, especially in front of us. If you knew half the things we've said in front of each other, what you said would be mild."

"Like the long-term penetration instead of long-term potentiation?" Genette chuckled.

"Thank god that wasn't me," Blaze said, looking up at the ceiling.

"No, you just told an AWACs to go screw himself."

"And then said he already had," Chopper added.

"Okay, I was upset and angry and he was not being helpful at all. I needed to shut him up," Blaze protested.

"We're teasing you, love," Chopper told her, kissing her on the head. "Best thing that I'd heard that day."

"I try not to remember that day," Blaze mumbled. "Anyways, Allison, what I was going to say was that you're welcome to stay at our house."

"I wouldn't want to intrude!" I exclaimed. "Honestly, I'll be fine in the hostel."

"It's no trouble. We have a guest bedroom for you. We can drive you to the airport for your flight back. Please, I'd feel better if you were staying with one of us."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"I'd have to stop by the hostel to get my stuff on the way home."

"That's okay. We came in two cars. Jem can drive Will and the girls home and Chopper and I can help you get your stuff."

"That would be wonderful Mrs. Davenport. You have no idea!"

"You're very welcome. When does your flight leave?"

"Not until eight at night. It was cheaper to have a night flight."

"Good. You'll have a nice home cooked meal before you go home."

I hugged Blaze out of sheer gratitude. I'd heard such terrible things about the Razgriz from some Belkans but I couldn't see what they meant. These people were as normal as could be and they had great hearts. I would never want to mess with them or be on their bad side, but I knew I didn't have to worry about that. They were my new family, and I was going to help Percy make sure that no harm came to them. To any of them.

* * *

><p><strong>Longer than I expected but certainly enjoyable :) Review please!<strong>


	10. Condemned

**Getting inspired by the National Treasure soundtrack so y'all get a new and exciting chapter :)**

**Chapter Quote:  
><strong>"**Being alive means running. Running from something, running to something or someone. And no matter how fast you are, there are some things you can't outrun. Some things always catch up with you."  
><strong>**~Barry Allen, **_**The Flash**_

* * *

><p>Chapter 10:<p>

**Percy**

It'd been over seven months since I'd 'borrowed' the information on the Gray Men from my dad's computer. Allison and I were stationed nearby. All I had to do was drive an hour over the Osean-Belkan border and I'd be at her base. It was certainly handy whenever we had topics to discuss on the Gray Men. We'd made quite a bit of headway in determining who was in the Gray Men currently, who had been in the past, and what they were after. Allison and I had decided that whoever was behind all this was definitely attempting to get vengeance on my family. There was a vendetta against them. Problem was that the Gray Men had all but disappeared. No terrorist attacks, no breaches to my parents' computer security except for Allison who was simply checking to make sure no one else was that wasn't supposed to be, and no more new information. My family, plus Allison and I, had hit a dead end. That didn't mean I'd stopped working on it though. Admittedly it'd been more difficult to work on the Gray Men information being stationed in Northern Osea. I'd been sent on more hops than I'd ever been on in my life. We were never informed why we were being sent up but we were always armed to the last bullet, something that struck me as strange when these were called 'practice hops' for our nuggets. Something was going on that we weren't being told. According to Allison, the same thing was going on at her base in Southern Belka. I could tell she was being curious and more times than once I had to convince her not to hack into her Base Commander's computer to figure out what was happening.

I still hadn't told any of my family about what Allison and I were doing. Until I knew what I knew what I was actually doing and getting myself into, I decided to keep quiet. That didn't stop me from being paranoid that the wrong people might find out what I was doing so I made sure I'd found a method for only my family to find out my research. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that but I had to be prepared.

My guess was my parents had played a part in this. Not only were all military bases on alert, but so were the airports. It was discreet but effective, something my family was extremely good at. My family also knew that if the extra security in the nation was noted by the civilians, it would be noticed by other governments, most importantly the Gray Men. I figured my parents were trying to lure the Gray Men into a false sense of security after they were able to detain one survivor from the hospital explosion. Blaze had been able to get information out of him. Apparently it'd only taken a day to for her to get information from the guy which seriously impressed me and seriously terrified me. Their suspect had been a guy that was six-foot-five, taller than anyone in our entire family, and a girl who was nearly a foot shorter than him was able to break him in less than twenty-four hours? Again, impressed or terrified, I don't know.

I'd talked to Shiloh on the phone earlier. She'd been trying to cheer me up because let's face it, being an adult is a lot more difficult than it seems. I guess not having family around me after being surrounded by them for twenty-two years was finally taking its toll.

It was eight in the evening and I'd finally arrived home from base. I was exhausted from being up at zero-four hundred and going non-stop. I had a day off tomorrow which I was looking forward to. I'd just showered and changed into my pajamas and was trying to figure out what I was going to eat for dinner when my phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey Perce," Shiloh greeted.

"Hey! How are you? Everything okay?"

"I'm good, everything's fine. Listen, I want to send you something you might like but I forgot which apartment you were in. I had it in my notes on my phone but accidentally deleted it."

"Apartment 413. May I ask what it is you're sending me?" I queried happily.

"No you may not, but it should get there pretty soon. I have to go. But I'll talk to you soon?"

"Of course. Love you."

"Love you too!"

My girlfriend hung up, leaving me smiling and curious as to what she'd bought me. Deciding it'd be impossible to guess, I went back to choosing what to have for supper. My hand reached for a box of mac and cheese when my doorbell rang. That was strange… who would be coming to my apartment this time of night? None of my neighbors ever bothered me because none of them were ever home. They were all deployed military. I crept over to the door and cautiously opened it.

"Hey soldier," Shiloh said, giving me a smile. Lifting up two boxes of pizza, she said, "I brought sustenance."

I took the pizza boxes, placing them on the hallway table, before pulling her into a hug.

"I can't believe you're here! Aren't you supposed to be at the academy?" I queried.

"I got all my work done. Besides, we a couple days off for teacher work days or something. Whatever it is, I'm getting time off and I can come see you. Hope you don't mind about the short notice. I wanted to surprise you. Thought it might cheer you up."

"You are always welcome here," I told her, giving her a kiss. "Come on in. Welcome to my humble abode."

"Nice little place you have here," Shiloh remarked. I briefly carried her suitcase into my room.

"Thanks. My stone fireplace has to be my favorite."

"It does add a nice touch. Do you like it here?"

"I do," I said, sitting next to her at the bar. "But I miss home. Mainly because mom always cooked. I mean I can but after a long day of work, it's not fun to cook. Not to mention cleaning which I _really_ need to do."

"I'll help you out. I'll be here a couple days so when you have to work, I can do some of it for you."

"I'm not letting you come here on vacation and end up cleaning my apartment. No, you are going to relax. How's your year going?"

"Not bad. I can't believe I'm in my final year already. Certainly feels strange. Isabelle and I are top of the classes with Lux, Henry, and Tessa right behind us. We're really stressed with our dissertations and whatnot but hey, what can you do? I handle the stress by eating. It's a really good thing I'm training every day or else I'd have gained about thirty pounds this semester. What about you? How's life on the base?"

"Good, good, just exhausting. You're up all day, little sleep. Not to mention it's hard when you've had family surrounding you your whole life and suddenly there's no one around you. Don't get me wrong, I'm friends with practically everyone on base, but they're not family."

"Well one of the bases they're considering stationing me at is here so you might have a family member after all."

"I'd rather it be you or Lux than your brothers. Have they still calmed down about the whole me-dating-you thing?"

"They calmed down about it a while ago. They just want to make you pee your pants and remember that they would kill you if you hurt me."

"So I can leave Witness Protection Program?"

"Shut up," she laughed.

I grinned. "What do you want to do tonight? Watch a movie?"

"Percy, no offense, but you look ready to fall asleep in your chair. I'll say we can watch a movie in bed but I have a feeling you'll fall asleep during the first few minutes of it."

"Honestly I probably will," I confessed. My girlfriend grinned as we continued to eat and talk. We killed a pizza and a half before the two of us finally felt full. We went to bed early although I think Shiloh stayed up working on school work. In the morning I got up before her, but that was no surprise. She always slept in late when she got the chance and let me tell you, she could sleep through anything. I dropped a frying pan on the floor, exclaimed a loud 'OW' when I burned myself on the stove, and stubbed my toe on the doorway when I was going to wake Shiloh up for breakfast. I found her sound asleep, having slept through all my racket. Upon waking her up, she rolled out of bed. Even being in my amazing presence, my girlfriend didn't speak, only giving me grunts for answers. It was thoroughly amusing to me. However, after about thirty minutes and a glass of orange juice, she was alert and saying full sentences to me.

The day passed quickly. We went walking around town because she'd never been to this part of Osea. Then we went out to dinner at a local diner, pigging out on cheeseburgers and chocolate milkshakes. I wanted to take her for a walk around the lake but since it was so cold out, both of us decided we'd much rather be indoors watching a movie, drinking hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps. To be honest, we drank quite a few cups and got a little drunk but considering I had to get up for work in the morning, I stopped myself from drinking anymore around nine. God help me if I had a hangover in the morning…

I woke up at one in the morning from a nightmare. I rubbed my face, trying to get the images of the Gray Men shooting at me and Shiloh in Parsberg out of my head. When that wouldn't work, I rolled over to grab my phone to check messages. To my surprise, I had one from Allison. It said to call her when I got a chance. Considering it was so late, I texted her to see if she was even up. Her reply was instant. I carefully crept out of my room, shutting the bedroom door so as not to wake Shiloh. I figured the one time she didn't sleep through something was when I was talking on the phone to a friend at one in the morning. That would be fun to explain.

"Percy!"

"Allison, what's up?"

"I think I might've figured out what the Gray Men want."

"What?!" I exclaimed quietly.

"One of the guys on my base, an older one, he had an Iron Cross tattoo on his forearm. I looked up his name in the database we compiled and he's in there! So I hacked into his computer while he was away and found out a crip-ton amount of information."

"Crip-ton? Do you mean Krypton? The stuff that is bad for Superman?" I asked.

"Okay, first off that's Kryptonite, second, what's that saying where people have a lot of information that they just came across or something?"

"Crap ton?"

"That's it! Okay, well, I found a crap ton of information on the Gray Men from this guy's computer. Percy it's bad. I can only give you a summary of what I found, but if it's the case you and the other kids _cannot_-" Allison stopped short. I heard a muffled voice in the background. When she came back on, she said, "Perce, I have to go. Our base is under attack."

"Your base is under attack? By who?"

"I don't know. I'll call you back. In the small chance I don't come back from this, you know the password to my computer. It has all the information about the Gray Men on it. If I do come back from this, come to see me as soon as possible. I'll put all this on a hard drive for you. I have to go."

"You better come back, you hear me? That's an order," I told her.

"You're not my captain."

"The hell I am. I'm a Razgriz Legacy."

"All right Razgriz, Allison out." She hung up on me. I paced around in the kitchen for a bit until I decided that since the base was under attack, surely it would be reported on the news. I turned on my TV in the living room. Sure enough, the attack on the Belkan air base was top news.

"A terrorist organization is believed to be behind the attack, not identifying themselves with a specific terrorist group. At first it was believed to be the Gray Men but with their demise in the Circum-Pacific War thanks to the Razgriz, it is highly unlikely that it is them. Some of the Razgriz will be flying out to handle the situation and to help Osean authorities in figuring out who orchestrated the attack and why. More on this in a moment." The screen went to a commercial for car insurance.

"Terrible," Shiloh murmured. "Is Allison okay? That's who you were talking to?"

"Yeah. She needed me to call her. What are you doing up?"

"I heard you talking to her about the attack. I didn't want to interrupt." Shiloh sat down on the couch next to me, resting her head on my shoulder. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Why are you so interested in the Gray Men?"

"What?"

"Earlier I needed to search for something so because my laptop was shut down, I used yours while you were in the bathroom. I began typing 'Google', do you know what the first suggestion was when I typed in the letter G?" I shook my head. "Gray Men. May I ask why that would be the top suggestion?"

"I was interested in them when our parents thought they might've returned. I wanted to know about them."

"Our parents never said anything about that in front of us," Shiloh pointed out.

"I overheard my parents talking about it," I lied.

"Percy, I'm blonde but I'm not dumb. It would take a lot of researching the Gray Men for it to top Google on anyone's laptop, even our parents'."

"It's nothing."

"It's not nothing, it's something. You've never been the same after Parsberg and it worries me. You've been quieter, you've been secretive, and worst of all you've been lying not just to me, but to the others as well." Shiloh got up.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Back to bed," she replied, not bothering to turn around.

"Shi, wait," I said, getting up and grabbing her hand. She whirled around. I released her hand when I saw the glare she was giving me.

"What for? I'll wait when you stop lying to me about why you're searching for the Gray Men."

"I told you why. I've been researching them."

"No, I want to know why you've been researching them into so much detail. When I saw that, I went into your computer history. I don't want to be one of the prying girlfriends but I'm worried about you, especially now that I saw how far back your research goes."

"You went into my computer history?" I demanded, more out of fear she'd discover the truth than fear of her seeing what I'd been looking at.

"I told you, I was worried about you!" She defended, looking rather sheepish. "I mean your research goes all the way back to the Parsberg attack."

"Fine, I've been looking into them because I want to know about the people that tried to kill my family!" I exclaimed angrily. "You need to drop this Shiloh. It's nothing you need to worry about. I haven't told you anything because I didn't think it was something you needed to know."

"You haven't told me anything because you don't want me to know or else all those other times I'd asked you about it, you would've told me. You know as well as I do that keeping secrets in this family gets people killed. Mom nearly got herself killed because of the secrets she kept. Your dad would've gotten killed had he not got the Razgriz involved when he did. You-"

"My dad would've been just fine without your mom," I retorted.

"Oh yes, because he could've driven through three, fully-armed checkpoints without getting hurt or killed and without air support. Your dad would've been able to take off in an unarmed plane on a runway filled with armed tanks. Stop making excuses when you know I'm right about this. Secrets get us killed, and forgive me, but I don't want a dead boyfriend. Good night."

Shiloh stormed off to the bedroom. Aggravated, I plopped back down on the couch. I continued watching the news for another hour before crawling into my own bed. Shiloh had her back to me but I knew she was still awake. Despite having gone to bed an hour ago, she never fell asleep easily. It always took her over an hour to do so. I turned my back to her as well, mad that she was mad at me, even though I understood where she was coming from. But then I felt guilty, because despite my dad's rough demeanor, he'd always told me to make sure that if I had a girlfriend, to make sure she knew I loved her, which meant saying 'I love you' morning and night, whether you'd had an argument or not. I rolled over on my other side, propping myself up on my elbow so I could see Shiloh's face.

"Shi?" I whispered, shaking her gently. My girlfriend didn't respond. I sighed in disappointment. "I love you."

I turned back on my side, closing my eyes, when I heard her say, "I love you too."

I smiled. Tomorrow would be better. Hopefully she would forget about being mad at me and we could enjoy our last day together. After all, I wouldn't see her until Christmas at the earliest and that was even iffy.

* * *

><p>I was wrong.<p>

So wrong.

My day started off normally. I went to the base at zero-six hundred. From there, I was given orders to fly out to the Belkan air base to help with anything they needed after the attack. I was able to call Allison before I got there. She was there to greet me when I landed. Her hand briefly slipped into my pocket. She dropped off a USB drive in my pocket. I knew what it was and said nothing.

I worked with Allison and a bunch of other soldiers on cleaning debris. I called Shiloh when I got a chance just to let her know I was okay. She understood. She was packing since she had a late night flight back home. I was back at my apartment at seventeen hundred hours. Shiloh was taking a shower. I took the time to hide the USB drive in a place I knew she wouldn't find it unless I told her specifically where it was, or a hint.

I began cooking dinner. Shiloh came out about half an hour later with her hair dry and makeup done.

"How was work?" she asked.

"Not bad. Saw Allison. Helped her and others clean up debris. What'd you do today?"

"Packed. My flight is at nine. I'll land around ten and get back to base around eleven."

"That's late. Will you be okay?"

"I'll be fine," Shiloh said, waving her hand dismissively. "Lux is picking me up. What's for dinner?"

"Hope you don't mind mac and cheese?"

"You know how much I love mac and cheese. Is it going to have bacon in it?"

"Of course," I said indignantly. She laughed as she sat the bar. Dinner was done in a few minutes. The two of us sat at the bar, chatting. Shiloh seemed to have forgotten about our argument last night which I wasn't complaining about.

All was going well until I heard fighter jets flying overhead. Both Shiloh and I looked up.

"There's not any hops going on that I know of," I said. I pulled out my phone to call a friend still on the base when it rang. I picked it up immediately. All I was told was that I needed to get to base immediately. Shoveling a huge forkful of mac and cheese into my mouth, I grabbed my bag, hastily explaining the situation to my girlfriend.

"Hey, be careful. I'm getting a bad feeling about this," she remarked.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"Percy, I'm serious. Something's wrong. Please watch your back."

I gave her a kiss. "You worry too much. I'll see you later. I promise."

I opened the door, but suddenly I hesitated. Shiloh wasn't the only one getting a bad feeling about this. I turned around and said, "Shi? If for some reason, something happens to me, in answer to the question I wouldn't answer last, just… remember this: my secrets are set in stone."

With that said, I shut the door. The last thing I heard was my girlfriend yelling at me: "What does that mean?!"

* * *

><p><strong>Shiloh<strong>

"What does that mean?!" I shouted at my boyfriend as he shut the door. I repeated, "What does that mean? I'm talking to myself… I'm still doing it."

I went to the window to see if I could spot the fighter jets but they were nowhere to be found. Sighing I went to Percy's room to make sure I had everything before I left. When I'd doubled and tripled-checked my suitcase, I went into the living room to watch the news to see if they had anything to report on what was happening at the base. Besides the fact that the base was on high alert, there was no new information.

At that moment my cellphone rang. I picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Shiloh, are you okay?" Dad demanded.

"I'm fine dad. Just wondering what's going on," I replied.

"We have an idea but I'm not getting you involved. It could be dangerous."

"Wouldn't I be safer if I knew what was going on?" I countered.

"Just listen to my directions. Be on alert. Where are you right now?"

"I'm always on alert. And I'm at Percy's apartment, why?"

"I want you to leave now. Get to the airport, a café, I don't care, just get somewhere public."

"Okay, I'm leaving now, but what's going on?"

"Shiloh, we'll explain everything soon but for now just listen to what I'm telling you."

"Okay, okay. What about Per-" I stopped when someone banged on the front door, loudly.

"What was that?" Dad asked seriously.

"Someone's at the door."

"Who knocks that loudly?"

"Dad, I'll call you back. Love you!" I briefly heard my dad say I love you before I hung up. I heard voices, deep ones, on the other side of the door. A feeling of dread settled in my stomach. I grabbed the gun from behind Percy's TV, hiding behind the couch.

"Knock down the door," a voice commanded. The door, thank god, was made of a ridiculously strong wood so the door splintered but didn't break. I took the brief chance I had to dial 911 before the door fully broke. I could hear the operator asking what was going on but all I could say was Percy's address before gunfire erupted in the apartment.

I ducked behind the couch, crawling towards one end of the couch. When I heard some of the men rearming themselves, I took the chance to shoot at them, popping up from behind the couch. I caught a glance of six men. I only had six rounds. I couldn't miss…

Thankfully, my first two shots hit two men. They went down. The other four starting shooting back. I lay back down on the floor. My eyes travelled to the underside of the coffee table: another gun.

Smiling and mentally thanking Percy for being paranoid, I grabbed the gun. Now I had two guns and almost double the ammo. I waited patiently for them to come around. This was a risky gamble on my part but if Ziva David could pull this off, then why couldn't I do something similar?

I waited with bated breath for the remaining four men to come over.

"Where is she?" one of them whispered.

"Did we shoot her?" a second questioned.

"We better not have killed her. Death makes the Razgriz open its black wings. Kidnapping makes them obey us," the first said.

"Aren't we supposed to kill her?"

"No," the leader said in disgust. "We're supposed to kill the _boy_ who is obviously not here. Varick, Mila, go see."

"Make sure she's alive. If she is, shoot her in the leg to immobilize her. If not, we'll hide her body."

I heard footsteps slowly approaching me. I wasn't going anywhere with these people. Mila and Varick suddenly appeared over the couch and I fired. They went down. The leader swore in Belkan before growling, "Screw orders! Kill the bitch!"

Before the two reached me, two gunshots rang out.

"Percy?!" a familiar voice called out anxiously.

"Allison?!" I replied.

"Shiloh!" Suddenly she was in front of me, pulling me up. "Are you okay?"

"Who the hell were those people?"

Allison helped me stand up before checking on the closest body. She scanned the body for… something. I knelt down next to her. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out who they are and who they're working for."

"They came to kill Percy. What is it that you're not-"

"Shh! I hear footsteps!"

"The kitchen. Hide behind the counters." The two of us darted over there."

"Hello?! This is the Osean Police. Show yourselves!"

"I've just been shot at! _You_ show _yourselves_!" I barked back.

"We're coming in!"

"Show your badges!" Allison and I peered over the counter. Hands extended through the door, holding out Osean badges. We stood up.

"Come in," Allison said. Five armed police officers entered the building.

"What the hell happened here?" one demanded. "Who are you?"

"My name is Shiloh Davenport. I was here to visit my boyfriend. He's an air force pilot stationed at the base nearby. I was here when these six people broke down the door and started shooting."

"Why did they shoot?"

"I overheard them say they wanted my boyfriend dead. I was to be taken alive until I shot four of their people. My friend here shot the other two."

"Why did they want your boyfriend? Does he carry valuable information?"

"If he does, he wouldn't tell me about it."

"Are either of you hurt?" another one asked.

"No sir. Just shaken up."

"We have an ambulance downstairs. I'll have one of my men escort you down there to make sure you sustained no injuries. You look familiar. Do I know you?"

"No, but you've probably seen my parents. Blaze and Chopper."

"You're _that_ Davenport?"

"Yes sir."

"We'll find out who tried to kill you. Mark, escort them to the ambulance." Allison and I left with the policeman. The EMTs did a quick check on us before saying we were fine. We then had to give a statement to the police about what had happened.

"So much for catching my flight home," I said, glancing at my watch.

"You should probably call your parents."

"They're going to freak," I mumbled, picking up the phone. I dialed my dad's number.

"Shiloh?"

"Hey dad, whatever you hear on the news about a shooting at Percy's apartment, I'm fine. I took care of the situation."

"What happened?"

"Six men attacked Percy's apartment. Percy is at the base. I was home alone. Allison came in at the last minute and saved my life."

"Shiloh… has no one told you?"

"First off, I don't like your tone when you say that. Second, I've kind of been busy getting shot at and shooting at people to be told anything!" I exclaimed. "Sorry dad… it's been a long night. What has no one told me?"

"Sweetie, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry…"

"Is everyone okay? Is it mom? Lux? The twins?"

"No, it's Percy."

"What happened to Percy?" I demanded.

"They just found him about two miles from the base. Someone… someone burned his body…"

* * *

><p><strong>Percy<strong>

It was chaos on base. People were running to and fro. I had no idea what was happening until my superior found me.

"Bartlett! Quit standing around and go get ready to fly. There's incoming fighters and we need people up to meet them. Get going!"

"Yes sir!" I dashed down the hall. Halfway there, two familiar faces greeted me.

"Perce!"

"Will! Jem! What the hell are you two doing here?" I asked. "Please tell me you're not here to kill me for dating your sister."

"No, we were ordered to fly out here to help," Will replied.

"Why would they send people from the other side of the country when they only found out…" I trailed off as the thought dawned on me. "They only found out less than thirty minutes ago…"

My eyes scanned the surrounding pilots and officers. I heard Will and Jem asking me what I was looking for but I was too busy narrowing in on an iron cross ring worn by a lieutenant standing behind us. The lieutenant caught me staring. I turned back to Will and Jem.

"Do you two remember when we would play pranks on people and we had all these different codenames for plans?" I queried.

"Yeah, why?" Jem answered.

"Do you remember Plan Razgriz?"

"Yeah, why?" Will replied.

"I'll tell you why. This isn't a random attack. I'll explain everything to you when I regroup with you. But part of the plan? Get off this base in a public place," I whispered. "Don't listen to what anyone else tells you. You have to trust me."

Will and Jem nodded before dashing off. I ran past the lieutenant. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him begin to follow me. I sure dug myself a deep hole…

"Percy! You're supposed to be going to the hangar!" My RIO, Max, shouted, falling into step with me.

"I know! That's where I'm headed!"

"Why aren't you in your flight suit yet?"

"I haven't had time!" The two of us ran outside. Tanks were mobilizing, troops were in formation. But my eyes weren't on them. They were on my plane in the hangar. I was going for my flight suit when the first gun shot rang out, but not outside. _In the hangar_.

"What the hell was that?" Max yelled, ducking behind a stack of crates with me.

"People are after me," I explained, peering over the crates only to hurry behind them again when the guys started shooting at me again.

"What did you do?!"

"Why do you think I did something?"

"Because you're always doing something!"

"Point made. Okay, you get out of here. I'm going to make a bolt for that door into the forest."

"I'm not leaving you."

"They're not after you!"

"I don't care! You can't take them all on your own."

I hesitated. "Fine, but stay close. And listen to all my orders, understood?"

"Understood."

"Then let's go." The two of us bolted to the door in the back of the hangar. Gunfire hit the walls next to us. However, we made it outside without being shot, something I was personally amazed at. The two of us were in the woods, leaping over fallen trees and rocks like we were very large, very scared deer. Of course, this would be much easier of we actually _were_ deer…

"Where exactly are we going?"

"Oh, you know, the Belkan Base," I replied.

"Percy, I can run for a long time, but not that long!"

"That's why we just need to put enough distance between us and them before we hide and let them bypass us." Then we'll follow them for a ways and all will be good."

"You seem very confident in this! Why do I get the feeling you've thought about this before?"

"Because I have? Multiple times?"

"I demand a full explanation when we're safe."

"Of course."

"You think they'd go after Sh-" Max cried out, crashing headfirst to the ground. I slid to a stop and knelt next to him. He was passed out cold from having hit his head on a rock.

"Freeze!" a guy ordered, holding his gun at me. Suddenly I was surrounded by Gray Men, guns aimed at my chest.

"What do you want?" I asked angrily.

"Where's the disc of information?" one of them asked.

"I don't have disc of information; also, who uses discs to store information anymore?"

"Save that sass! We know you've been digging into us and we need to know how much information you have!"

"I'm not telling you any information I may or may not have."

"Maybe you will if we kill your friend here?"

"Don't touch him!" I charged one of the guys, dodging when he tried to kick me in the stomach. I whirled around him and kneed him in the back of the knee. He went down; I pulled him into a choke hold. "You will let me and my friend go. He doesn't know anything and I can't do anything with what I know."

That last part was a lie but they didn't need to know that. However, I'd let my overconfidence get to me, not realizing someone was sneaking up behind. I felt something very heavy hit me on the head before I blacked out.

* * *

><p><strong>A long chapter for being so patient. Reviews would be lovely (especially since I'm writing this instead of studying for a test) :)<strong>


	11. Conjecture

**Enjoy :)**

**Chapter Quote:  
><strong>"**I'm good at figuring out how things work, but I don't know how this happened."  
><strong>**~Nora Roberts, **_**The Collector**_

* * *

><p>Chapter 11: Conjecture<p>

**Blaze**

The funeral for Percy was a small family affair. It'd been a closed casket viewing as there was nothing to see but charred bones. His dog tags were given to Bartlett and Major. They took off one of the dog tags and handed it to Shiloh. My daughter, although she didn't cry, teared up, giving them a small thank you.

Shiloh hadn't said much to anyone, keeping to herself. I understood exactly where she was coming from. Not only had she nearly died from having people attack Percy's apartment, but her best friend, her boyfriend, had just died. I was unaware of just how similar my daughter and I were until I brought up the subject with my brother and he said, "She's just like you when Chopper died."

I realized how true it was though. No one had been able to get through to me after Chopper died, and no one could get through to Shiloh. She had shut off the world. It was our defense mechanism to protect ourselves from further harm and heartache.

I noticed, however, that if Shiloh did talk, it was almost always to Allison. They'd become quite close over the whole ordeal. Saving each other's lives could do that. I'd invited Allison since I knew she'd been a close friend to Percy and of Shiloh's. I also owed her for saving my daughter's life.

Once the funeral was over, we lingered for a bit, talking softly to each other, trying to console the crying kids. Lux and Tessa were silently bawling their eyes out. Will and Jem had never looked so shaken. Alec and Henry sat on the ground next to the grave, staring in silence at the engraved wording of Percy's name on the granite headstone. Charlotte and Isabelle stood next to each other, arms wrapped around each other's shoulders. Tears escaped their eyes but they didn't make a sound.

Major was sobbing into Bartlett's shoulder. Chopper was attempting to console Lux. Nagase walked over to stand next to her daughter which seemed to break the dam of tears in Isabelle's eyes as tears started freely cascading down her cheeks. Cassie kept wiping tears off her cheeks as she tried to talk about all the good times with Percy, ranging from when he was a little baby to when he was an adult. Genette stood and stared at the fresh mound of dirt. His jaw was clenching and unclenching. I wondered what was going through his mind but decided now was not the time to ask. Pops, Henri, Geller, Andersen, Snow, Harling, Cipher, and Pixy stood a little bit away from the group, quietly chatting with each other. I caught Percy's name a few times. Helena Geller joined Alec and Henry on the ground. Her face was red, her eyes bloodshot. She'd been close to Percy most of her life. They'd just always been friends. I wondered if it was because they were only children. I remembered on more than one occasion the two of them would convince people they were siblings rather than friends. Most people bought it.

As I watched everything going on around me, I noticed two people were missing: Shiloh and Allison. I glanced around the cemetery. I found the two of them sitting on the bench a little ways away. My daughter had her head buried in her hands. Allison was gently rubbing Shiloh's back in consolation. It physically hurt watching my family be in this type of pain, and adding my own pain from the situation to it, I felt the need to shut the world out for a while. I hadn't felt that since Chopper died, and it scared me to feel this way again. I couldn't shut the world out. I had a family who needed me, and I had some Gray Men to capture. They were at the root of this problem and I was going to get them once and for after what they did to my family.

After an hour of lingering, we all headed home. President Duncan had given us the next few days off but I found myself heading to the palace after only two days. I needed something to distract me from the thoughts of Percy being dead. I asked if Chopper or any of the kids wanted to come. Jem and Will agreed. Lux and Shiloh stayed home. Chopper chose to watch over them.

It turned out I wasn't the only one who couldn't stand being confined in the house. Genette, Pixy, and Cipher were all working when I arrived. They greeted me and my sons with somber hellos.

"Will, Jem, you have free reign of the palace. When you want to go home, just let me know. And let me know if you need anything," I said.

"We're going to hang out in the living room," Will said.

"We have our laptops so we'll be fine," Jem added. They gave me a kiss on my cheek and left.

Turning to my brother, I said, "Genette, do you want to grab some coffee with me?"

He looked up at me. "Yeah, I could use some."

The two of us walked out of our business room. Once we knew we were out of earshot, my brother asked, "How are you doing?"

"A little better now that I'm out of the house and doing something to capture the people who did this to Percy. You?"

"I'm handling it. Have you heard anything from Bartlett or Major?"

"No. They've shut everyone out completely. They'll come to us when they're ready."

Genette and I entered the kitchen. No one was in there at the time. We quietly made our drinks, tea for me, coffee for him. Once our drinks were both made, Genette said, "What's on your mind?"

"What were you thinking about at the funeral? You were the only one standing alone and I saw the tics in your jaw."

My brother ran his finger around the rim of his cup a few times before answering. "Percy's death sobered me up about the reality we live in. For almost thirty decades, we've been unstoppable. Whenever we went after something, we always got what we were looking for. Yes we almost died, but we always came back. I remember thinking after Chopper died of who was going to be the next one of us in the casket. And when he came back, I started believing we were invincible. I started believing that the Demon of Razgriz was protecting us from all harm. And then Percy died and it hit me that we're not invincible. We don't have these omniscient demon watching out for us all the time. Now I'm back to wondering who the next person in the casket is going to be."

I hung my head, unable to form words to comfort my brother. Was there anything I could say in the first place that could help? I doubted it. I was wondering which one of us was next on the Gray Men's hit list and why. What had Percy done that had made the Gray Men choose to kill _him_ instead of one of us, instead of the actual Razgriz?

Then something dawned on me. I went back up to the office with Genette on my trail. Shutting the office door, I turned to my comrades. "Percy was alone when the Gray Men went after him. His friend that was running with him wasn't part of the Gray Men's plan but now they have him for some reason and we need to find out why."

"Wasn't Shiloh also alone when she was attacked?" Cipher pointed out.

I nodded. "They're going after the kids because the kids are the easiest to get to," I said, suddenly becoming convinced this was the Gray Men's plan this time. "They can't get to us so they go for the next best thing. They know the kids are stronger if they're together though and that's why they're attacking them when they're alone. I'm sure the Gray Men didn't expect Allison to show up that night. Get word to the others that the kids, and us as well, are not to go anywhere without another Razgriz member. I'm going to talk to President Duncan about this. Pixy, you're friends with that journalist still, Brett Thompson, right?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Get in touch with him. He's good at finding people in remote locations. Ask him if he wants to join our crusade, tell him the dangers, and if he agrees, give him the list of names we have of high-profile Gray Men members that were never caught after the Circum-Pacific War. Cipher, can you contact PJ's wife and ask her the same thing?"

"Iris has already been looking into things. Whatever she finds, she tells PJ who tells me. It's kind of a… jumble of stuff right now and nothing we haven't figured out on our own but I have a feeling she's going to find something big soon. She always does when she puts her mind to something."

"Thank you."

"How are the kids holding up?"

"Shiloh's holding it all in around us, but she won't speak, and I've seen her face get red a few times as if she's trying not to cry. Lux seemed to do all her crying at the funeral but she's been very quiet for Lux. Will and Jem are trying to be the strong ones here and are trying to make people smile like they always do, but it's hard for them when they're having trouble smiling themselves," I said softly.

"Genette?"

"Isabelle and Henry have become really close over the ordeal. Alec is keeping to himself."

"And you two? Chopper and Nagase?"

"We're… hanging in there. I'll feel better once I catch the bastards who did this," I admitted.

"Nagase and I are just trying to be there for our children. We remember all too well what it feels like to lose a member of your family."

I briefly remembered the pain I felt from losing Chopper but hurriedly stopped that train of thought. Even after all these years, whenever I thought about that part of my life, the pain always felt fresh and new and there was enough pain happening right now. I didn't need it amplified by the past.

Suddenly our office door was thrown open. Geller and Snow stood heaving in the doorway with a Will and Jem standing wide-eyed behind them.

"What's going on?" I demanded, standing up from my chair. I felt my brother, uncle, and Pixy come up behind me.

Geller was finally able to stammer out the message. "Henri. He's gone. He's been taken."

* * *

><p><strong>Lux<strong>

"Hey Lux, it's Henri. I know you're in your exam right now but when you're finished, I'm waiting outside to take you and Shiloh out for a celebratory lunch. I also know you're probably panicking over the exam and let me tell you know, you're going to do just fine, and if you find yourself stuck, channel your inner Chopper that I know you have and bullshit your way through. You'd be amazed at how far your dad got bullshitting his way through stuff but I'll tell you those stories later. Good luck and I'll see you soon. Love you!"

I played the voicemail over and over as I sat on my bathroom floor with the door shut. I'd been in there for hours, ignoring the attempts of my dad to coerce me out of there.

First Percy was murdered, then my sister was nearly murdered, and now my godfather was missing, most likely dead as well. I was in too much shock to even cry; all I could do was stare at the cabinet in front of me as I tried to wrap my head around what was happening to my family. We were falling apart. We were being targeted. I felt like a fox being chased by hunters. I despised the feeling.

I went down for dinner but went straight to my room when I'd finished eating and washed my plate. I took a shower early and crawled into bed, knowing that if I didn't try and get to sleep early, I'd be going to bed at three or four in the morning.

Like I predicted, sleep wouldn't come easily. I'd closed my eyes at nine and besides going in and out of consciousness a few times, didn't fall into a deep sleep.

At one in the morning, there was a soft knock on my door, followed by the quiet voice of Shiloh saying my name. I couldn't resist answering her. She'd barely spoken a word since Percy's funeral and if she was wanting to speak to me at midnight, I wasn't going to stop her. I opened the door to find her waiting patiently for me. She took my hand before leading me quietly downstairs. Will and Jem were at the kitchen table with a heaping plate of chocolate chip cookies in the center. There were four glasses of milk, one for each of the twins, one for Shiloh, and one for me.

When Will and Jem saw me, the former said, "We couldn't sleep with everything going on."

"So we made cookies to give us some comfort," Jem added.

"How did you not wake up mom and dad?" I heard myself ask as I sat down.

"Because we're stealthy like that," Will replied.

"Also, mom and dad helped us make them. They went to bed about thirty minutes ago," Jem said.

I grabbed a cookie, dunking it in my milk. The four of us ate in silence for a while, enjoying the deliciously gooey cookies until Will sneezed. His face scrunched up in pain as he muttered, "Milk and cookies taste good but not when they go up your nose…"

Jem hit his brother on the back in attempt to help but all it did was make Will grunt. I laughed a little. Even Shiloh cracked a smile. And then just like that, Will and Jem were cracking jokes at each other, and my sister and I were smiling and laughing at their antics.

For that short while, I was able to forget about the problems facing our family. For that short while, I was able to forget about my worries for my family's future.

* * *

><p><strong>Shiloh<strong>

I managed to go back to school the week after Percy's death. It wasn't the same though. I found myself waiting for him to call me before bed so we could tell each other about our days. I found myself waiting for random texts of him telling me stupid, funny stories that happened at his base. I found myself zoning out of lectures only to be snapped back to reality when one of my professors yelled at me.

It was finally Saturday and I had time to rest. But in reality, my mind kept mulling over the last thing Percy said to me: _My secrets are set in stone_.

What the hell did that mean? Did he engrave his secrets in a rock somewhere that I was supposed to know about?

In order to distract myself from the aggravating question, I pulled out my laptop, googling if there was any significance to the statement. All that popped up was song lyrics. That was probably not what he meant. Percy could do many things, but write a song was not one of them and if he had, I most certainly would've known about _that_.

Sighing, I pulled up photos on my laptop. I had a designated folder that was strictly of family photos and videos. I started scrolling through them, smiling whenever I saw the signature smirk on Percy's face that clearly said he was up to something (the twins were usually in those photos). I even found the video of toddler Percy pushing Bartlett into a lake. That one made me laugh.

Soon I was in more recent pictures. Ones I'd taken when I was at Percy's flat only a little while ago. There was one of me and in front of the fireplace. There was one of us on the couch. There were a few of just me and a few of just Percy when one of us had stolen my phone to snap pictures. But the next photo I didn't remember taking. Percy was grinning proudly in front of his fireplace, pointing to it with his fingers. For a moment, I couldn't place what was wrong about the picture. Honestly, there wasn't. The only thing wrong was that it was on my laptop with me having no memory of uploading it. There wasn't even a hint of déjà vu or anything like that. When it came to pictures, I knew which ones I'd seen before and which ones I hadn't, and this one of Percy definitely belonged in the latter category.

And then it dawned on me. To anyone else, this photo would be inconspicuous. Just another photo in a folder. But Percy knew I'd know that it was more than just a picture. It was a sign.

"It's that damn fireplace," I muttered.

_Set in stone_.

Nice one Percy. I grabbed my phone, texting Allison to meet me at Percy's old apartment in a few hours, that I was catching a train ride up there. I told her I'd explain everything when I saw her. I grabbed my purse and was heading out the door when I hesitated. Percy's mistake had not been telling any of us what he was doing. That had gotten him killed. Not wanting to make the same mistake, I went straight for Alec's apartment since he was stationed at the Air Force base near the academy. I knew he'd help. When I knocked on his door, he told me to come in. He actually seemed surprised to see me when he opened his door.

"Hey," he said, moving aside so I could enter.

"I need your help. It requires you going to Percy's apartment with me. I promise you I will explain everything on the way, but I can't do this alone. Not just because I don't want to be alone in Percy's apartment again, but he was keeping a secret from us that got him killed. If I'm right about his apartment, we'll finally learn what the secret is," I told him in a rush.

"How are we going to get into the apartment?" He asked, grabbing his wallet and jacket.

"I know the clerk at the desk. I can sweet talk him into letting us up there."

"Then lead the way. When we get back though, we need to tell the others what's going on."

"I know. I just need to know exactly what's going on before I say anything."

We arrived at Percy's apartment around three in the afternoon. Allison was waiting for us in the lobby, her nose buried in a newspaper, but I knew better. I knew she was aware of everything going on around her.

"Hey," I greeted, walking up to her. She stood up and hugged me tightly.

"How are you doing?" Allison asked, pulling away. Her eyes settled on Alec. "Hi."

"Hey." Alec waved.

"I enlisted his help. I'm not going to make the same mistake as Percy did of not involving my family in this. Maybe I won't tell my parents but the other kids deserve to know. It all depends on what it is. I know you know what it is though. We'll talk about that when we get up to his apartment though." I walked over to the front desk. Greg the Front Deskman was typing away on his computer. He gave me a sad smile.

"Hello dear. How are you doing?" he queried.

"I'm okay," I said softly. "I know we're probably not allowed to but is there any way we could go up to Percy's apartment? We just… we've been having a hard time with closure and we think it might help us."

Greg hesitated. "There's some people coming to fix some of the damage in an hour, but I suppose you could. Here."

He handed me the key and waved us on up. I let out a relieved sigh, unsure if my plan had actually been going to work. I'd been acting but it hadn't been hard. The apartment would offer some closure because it would give us at least a clue as to what Percy had been getting himself into.

I unlocked the door to his apartment. The place still looked like it had when I'd been there last. Alec grabbed my arm.

"Shi… is this-" he began, staring at the dried-up bloodstains on the floor.

I nodded. "I was over there behind the couch. The men and women were here where we're standing."

Alec's hand traveled down to grasp mine. "I could've lost Percy _and _you that night."

"But you didn't. And we're going to get justice for his death. I promise. The last words Percy told me was that his secrets were set in stone. I finally think I figured out what he meant. He hid something in his fireplace."

"Do you know where?" Allison questioned, walking up to the stone.

"I thought you might."

"No. I just gave him some information."

"About the Gray Men?"

She nodded. "He would have me research into things, break into a few government files, stuff like that."

"You broke into government files?" Alec queried incredulously.

"Is that judgment I'm hearing?" she countered.

Alec grinned, responding, "Awe. That's pretty damn impressive."

"How did you get the information to him?"

"We would always meet up and I'd give him a USB drive with information on it. I never knew what he did with it."

"What was the last information you gave him?"

Allison hung her head. "It was about you. It's a conspiracy against your family by the leader of the Gray Men. I was trying to tell Percy that none of you can go out by yourselves. You must always have someone go with you."

"That's what we're doing. My mom implemented that rule."

"It's a good one. Stick to it."

"Okay, we don't have much time. My guess is one of these stones can be removed. We just have to figure out which one…"

"There's like… two hundred," Alec remarked.

"Then we better get working." The three of us set to work. I took the top part above the fireplace itself. Allison took the stones on the right side; Alec the ones on the left. I tugged on every single stone and more than once. Allison had the same trouble as me. Alec, however, seemed to have better luck.

"Guys, I think I have something!" he exclaimed, wiggling a stone out of its place. He turned it upside down, shaking it. A USB drive fell to the ground. I picked it up.

"Anyone bring their laptop?" I asked.

"Nope. We should head back. Our hour is almost up," Alec said.

"And I need to get back to base. I cued the waterworks to get out for a bit," Allison admitted. Nodding, I stuffed the USB drive in my pocket, wanting to keep it directly on me. Alec and I said bye to Allison before getting the train back to the OAFA.

"So Percy was digging into the Gray Men," Alec stated.

"Yeah. I knew he was, I just didn't know it was this… obsessive. The Parsberg attack really messed him up. He was never the same."

"It's not your fault Shi."

"What if I'd gotten him to tell me though?"

"Then you would've known. But you weren't at the base the day he was attacked. You couldn't have gotten on the base if you'd tried. You couldn't have stopped him from going to the base that day. The Gray Men knew Percy was onto them. If they knew you were too, they would've gone after you sooner than they did. You said they were at Percy's apartment to kill him, but they wanted to kidnap you until you shot at them."

"I just can't help but think this could've played out differently if at least one of us had known."

"Because you loved him. When you love someone and you lose them, you always think there's a way you could've saved them when in reality, you most likely couldn't. And I promise you, there was nothing you could've done that day to save Percy."

I leaned my head on Alec's shoulder. "We're going to catch the bastards that did this."

"We won't stop until we do."

* * *

><p><strong>Lux<strong>

Shiloh had been MIA from base. I texted all the kids asking if they'd seen her. Only Alec responded, saying she was with him. I wondered how they'd gotten to meet up since none of us were allowed to leave alone. That's how we were all being attacked.

I called Shiloh multiple times but it kept going to her voicemail. I paced up and down my room until someone knocked on my door. I told them to come in. Liam leaned against my doorway, staring at me curiously. "What's on your mind?"

"My sister went somewhere with Alec and she won't text me where or why and she won't answer my calls and I'm getting worried. Alec's responding but he's not telling me anything except they're fine and they'll explain later, whatever the hell that means…" I took a deep breath. "How are you?"

"A lot less troubled than you seem to be. I was hoping you could help me with some questions for that assignment due on Monday."

"Yeah, sure. Anything to get my mind off of what trouble Shi is getting herself into." Liam sat down on my bed, pulling his laptop out of his backpack. I sat next to him. For the next hour and a half, the two of us worked the problems out. In all honesty, I needed help on them too so having someone work them out with me was tremendous. But my mind was never far from what Shiloh was doing.

"Would you like to try and call her from my phone? Maybe she's not picking up for you _because_ it's you and probably knows she'll be reprimanded," Liam suggested.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"It's worth a shot," I admitted. Liam pulled out his phone and handed it to me. Just as I started dialing her number, my phone buzzed. Liam tossed it to me. The text was from Shiloh telling me to get my butt- along with Isabelle, Lydia, Sophie, Henry, Charlotte, and Liam- over to Alec's apartment immediately. I called her and finally she picked up.

"What's going on?"

"It's a long story and you have to trust me but please come over. Bring everyone else in the text. Lie your way out of the base," she ordered.

"Okay. Are you and Alec safe?"

"Technically."

"What does that mean?" I asked suspiciously, grabbing my purse. I wrote a note to Liam to get ready to go. He appeared totally confused but listened.

"It means that none of us are safe and I'll explain why when you get here. Now hurry up! And make sure you're not followed!" With that, she hung up. I turned to Liam.

"What's going on?" He queried, stuffing his laptop into his bag.

"I honestly have no idea. But she wants me to meet up with her and you to come. And the others. And warned us to make sure we're not followed. She sounded kind of panicked."

"Then let's get going."

"I owe you big for this."

"Your family doesn't freak out about just anything. If Shiloh's freaking out about something, it's got to be big. I'm just wondering how I play a part in it."

"Me too. What do you say you meet me at the front while I go get the others?"

"Sounds good." Liam turned left out of my room. I turned right. Isabelle, Charlotte, and Sophie were in Isabelle's room chatting. I told them to meet Liam out front, that I didn't have time to explain. Henry was chilling in his room. I found Lydia in the lab. They gave me questioning looks but listened. When I arrived, Liam had called three taxis.

"I figured we could ride two, two, three," Liam explained quietly. "I told them Shi said to make sure we're not followed so we're all going to take different routes to get to Alec's apartment and we're going to be dropped off a couple blocks away at surrounding hotels so we can escape out back doors."

"That's brilliant. Okay, I'll ride with Liam. Sophie, Lydia, and Charlotte ride together. Henry, Isabelle, you take the third cab. Everyone know the plan?" I questioned. They nodded.

Liam and I hopped into our cab. We instructed him to drop us off at the Royal Palace Hotel. I had no clue why it was named the Royal Palace Hotel since there'd never been any sort of royalty in Osea's history, but it offered a back door that Liam and I could escape from so we didn't question it.

I turned halfway in my seat so it looked like I was talking to Liam to anyone driving behind us, but my main goal was to keep an eye on any cars that seemed to be tailing our cab. A silver Camaro turned out to be my prime suspect. It was always two or three car lengths behind us, whether there were cars in front of it or not. It made every turn we did. I pointed it out to Liam.

"Follow my lead. I have a way to really lose them," he said. We were dropped off at the hotel. Liam paid for the cab. He took my hand and led me into the hotel. He acted as if he owned the place as he escorted me to the elevator. A man in a business suit tried catching up to us but Liam pressed the close button, giving the man a fake, sympathetic smile. We went to the sixth floor where we disembarked. Liam led me to the end of the hall to the stairwell.

"This should bring us to the back door of the hotel for guests to get into," he explained. We practically ran down the steps. Sure enough, we arrived at a back door when we reached the ground floor. From there, we took the alleyway to the other side of the block, trying to walk as fast as we could to Alec's apartment building without looking suspicious. We arrived without any further incidents. Liam and I were also the first to arrive.

Alec ushered us in. Soon Isabelle and Henry arrived. Then we waited for the last three. Twenty minutes passed before they finally arrived.

"What took so long?" I asked worriedly.

"We were being trailed. It took us twenty minutes to lose them but I'm positive we did. Now what's this all about?" Charlotte demanded. At that, Alec motioned for us to follow him. My sister was sitting on the couch with her laptop, but her laptop screen was also projected onto the flat screen TV.

"What is this?" I inquired, sitting next to her.

"This is what Percy was working on. This is the secret he was keeping from us," she answered.

"What exactly is it?" Henry queried. We were all staring at the TV screen where a word document with the Osean seal at the top was displayed.

"A third of it is all the history about the Gray Men. Another third is information about Gray Men members. The last third is their plans. I don't know how Percy got all this information, although I know Allison gave him quite a bit, but I'm pretty sure this is what cost him his life."

"What are the plans?" Charlotte piped up.

"Mom was right. The Gray Men are targeting us when we're alone. There's more information though. Percy figured out that the Gray Men were onto him and that they knew he was going to spill everything to either us or our parents sooner or later, so they needed to off him, but they didn't do it soon enough. He was able to figure out their last plan before he died, and he put it on this USB drive."

"What is it?" Isabelle asked warily.

"Instead of killing us one by one, they're going to try and get us all together. They're halfway there with all of us already being at the base. Will, Jem, Tessa, and Alec all just got orders to come to the OAFA because they have been given a 'special mission' regarding some terrorism threats."

"How do you know we're part of this?" Sophie questioned.

"Because our names were on that list. Just the kids. But then Lydia, Liam, and you were listed on there as well because you're close to us."

"What about Simon?" Isabelle asked quickly.

"He's on the list as well but mentioned as someone to be watched, not to be 'taken care of'. I've already talked to him. He's on his way to meet with Axel. Whatever the Gray Men plan on doing to us, they plan on doing it next Sunday. I'm going to meet with Axel because I've already told him what's been going on and I'm going to see if he can help us. The Gray Men will have figured out by now that we're onto them and I'm positive they have people working at the academy so this will be our last chance to get off base."

"So how are we going to escape from them?" Lydia prodded.

"That's what I'm going to ask Axel's help for. He specializes in rescues. He knows how to fly planes but he switched over to rescuing people later on. If anyone can create an extraction plan, it would be him. I've already contacted him. I'm going to find a way off the base so I can talk to him."

"You'll need a distraction," I remarked.

"That's where I was hoping Henry and Charlotte would help. Do you have architectural plans of the academy?"

"Of course," they replied simultaneously.

"Are there any secret tunnels that lead off base I could use?"

"A few, but they're difficult to get to without being seen. There's cameras all around there. However, if we had someone hack into the security cameras, tape some footage for a few hours, and then play _that_ footage when you're making an escape, we could do it," Alec proposed.

"Didn't Riley Poole do that in the first National Treasure?" I said.

"Where do you think I got the idea?"

"Do we have someone here who could do that?"

"I can. I just need the right wires and someone who's good with technology," Lydia said. We all turned to Isabelle who agreed she'd do it.

"Awesome. Then I'll escape into the city for a bit to meet with Axel," my sister decided.

"You're going to need backup," I pointed out.

"I'll take you and Liam. It'll be less conspicuous to other people. It'll look like a double date or something."

"I'm game. Should we be armed?" Liam asked.

"Probably a good idea. Last time I was unarmed, I was shot at. I've also informed Allison and Helena of everything going on. Allison is meeting with Axel and he's going to sneak her onto his ship. Helena is being stubborn and won't move. I think she's kind of eager to shoot at one of the Gray Men."

"Aren't we all?" Alec said. His tone was joking but I knew he wasn't.

Shiloh smiled. "Then it's a plan. Once I talk to Axel and get a plan sorted out, I'll get back to you. Also, don't talk about this in any of the rooms. I don't trust them not to be bugged. If you're going to talk about it, write notes or type stuff to each other. Just don't say anything out loud. So, does everyone understand what's happening?" We nodded. My sister took a deep breath. "Then let the games begin."

* * *

><p><strong>And the plot thickens! What do you think the extraction plan is going to entail? Let me know in a review :)<strong>


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